LSD members fined for highway protest
Magistrate says they put other road users at risk when they stopped to unfurl banners nearby
Five League of Social Democrats activists were fined yesterday for improper use of an expressway during a protest in June last year when then-president Hu Jintao was visiting the city.
Magistrate Winnie Lau Yee-wan said in Tsuen Wan Court that they posed a danger to other road users by stopping and getting out of their car on the North Lantau Highway.
People are usually fined a few hundred dollars for common traffic offences. But our fines are almost at the maximum, which is unreasonable. This is political prosecution
Executive party member Wong Ho-ming, 24, who was among the five, said outside court that the fines - HK$4,500 for two of them and HK$3,000 for the other three - were unreasonably high.
"People are usually fined a few hundred dollars for common traffic offences. But our fines are almost at the maximum, which is unreasonable," he said. "This is political prosecution."
The maximum penalty for unauthorised use of an expressway is a HK$5,000 fine and three months' imprisonment.
Wong and Chan Tak-cheung, 24, were fined HK$4,500 each. They denied using the expressway without authorisation, and told the court that they were not remorseful. After their conviction yesterday, the pair said they would consider lodging an appeal.