Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam hits back at critics ‘politicising’ jail term for activist Edward Leung
Chief executive acknowledges that people hold different views on Leung’s six-year sentence but says that is no reason to attack legal system
Critics of the jail sentence imposed on activist Edward Leung Tin-kei over his role in the 2016 Mong Kok riot were politicising the issue and harming Hong Kong’s rule of law, the city’s leader said on Tuesday.
The sentence for Leung, 27, one of the faces of the city’s independence movement, was the second most severe punishment handed to a Hong Kong protester since public order laws were introduced in the 1960s. His co-defendant, Lo Kin-man, 31, was jailed for seven years for rioting.
Former Hong Kong governor Chris Patten on Monday said he was disappointed to see the “vaguely drafted” Public Order Ordinance being used “politically” to place harsh sentences on activists – a concern echoed by politicians from the city’s pro-democracy camp.
Lam on Tuesday acknowledged that people held different views on Leung’s sentence.