Protesters who stormed Hong Kong’s Legislative Council given jail terms after prosecutors pushed for tougher sentences
Judges call earlier penalty imposed by lower court ‘manifestly’ inadequate, hand down deterrent sentence
Thirteen Hong Kong pro-democracy protesters convicted of unlawful assembly were jailed for between eight and 13 months on Tuesday after prosecutors launched a successful bid for a harsher punishment from the court.
Their supporters and fellow demonstrators said they were angry and saddened, while also worried that the ruling would restrict their freedom to hold protests.
The 13, part of a wider group who in 2014 stormed the Legislative Council over a controversial government development project, were originally given 80 to 150 hours of community service by a lower court in 2016.
In sentencing, Magistrate Jason Wan Siu-man took into account that the activists held a “noble cause” of speaking up for the ignored when they took part in the protest against a development project in Hong Kong’s northeastern New Territories on June 13, 2014. Critics said the project would leave people homeless.
But the prosecutors returned to the Court of Appeal on Monday to review the sentence, arguing that the crime was serious because the group had teamed up with others to storm the legislature despite being aware of a police presence. They asked the court to jail the 13 as a deterrent.
A ‘noble’ cause: 13 Hong Kong activists who stormed Legco spared jail
A panel of three justices – Court of Appeal vice-president Wally Yeung Chun-kuen and Justices of Appeal Derek Pang Wai-cheong and Jeremy Poon Shiu-chor – on Tuesday agreed with the prosecutors, saying that community service was “manifestly” inadequate.