Supporters of Liu Xiaobo plead not guilty to unlawful assembly

Six pro-democracy activists yesterday pleaded not guilty to unlawful assembly over a protest inside the central government's liaison office compound on Christmas Day.

The six - including Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements in China vice-chairman Richard Tsoi Yiu-cheong, lawmaker Lee Cheuk-yan, former legislator 'Long Hair' Leung Kwok-hung and activist Koo Sze-yiu - appeared in Eastern Court before Magistrate Anthony Yuen Wai-ming. They are to return to court for a pre-trial review of the case on April 22.

The six were part of a group that protested at the liaison office on December 25 against the 11-year sentence handed down to mainland dissident Liu Xiaobo .

Outside court yesterday, the activists and their supporters chanted slogans, decrying what they called a recent spate of political prosecutions. They displayed placards calling for the mainland government to free Liu.

Alliance chairman Szeto Wah said after the hearing that the alliance would organise a meeting on April 28 with activists who have been victims of 'political prosecution'.

Among those invited would be people associated with Citizens' Radio; members of the so-called post-1980s generation, people in their 20s who have been protesting against the construction of an express rail link to Guangzhou; and League of Social Democrats leader Andrew To Kwan-hang, Szeto said.