Jailing Hong Kong’s three young Occupy leaders ‘will deter others from joining protests’

Criminal lawyer says lower courts must now follow ‘deterrence’ principle in handing out sentences instead of being lenient towards those under 21

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Nathan Law (left), Joshua Wong and Alex Chow protest outside the High Court. Photo: Sam Tsang

Published: 8:00am, 18 Aug 2017Updated: 1:30pm, 18 Aug 2017

The Hong Kong Court of Appeal which sent three young Occupy leaders to jail warned against what one judge called the “unhealthy trend” of advocating civil disobedience, while observers feared the ruling would intimidate people into staying away from future pro-democracy drives.

While the city’s democracy activists pledged to maintain their campaigns even if allies were jailed, a criminal lawyer said the lower courts, which used to value young defendants’ ideals, would have to follow the Court of Appeal’s “deterrence” principle in handing down future sentences.

The ruling – which sees Joshua Wong Chi-fung, Alex Chow Yong-kang and Nathan Law Kwun-chung sent to jail for six to eight months – was the government’s second successful attempt in a week to seek tougher sentences for protesting activists.

Court of Appeal vice-president Wally Yeung Chun-kuen slammed the “unhealthy trend” in which intellectuals advocated the idea of civil disobedience.

“These people openly despise the rule of law. Not only do they refuse to admit their law-breaking behaviour is wrong, they even see their acts as something to be proud of,” Yeung wrote.

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