Activists allowed to appeal protest verdicts

The city’s top court on Tuesday gave two activists from the League of Social Democrats leave to appeal their convictions for disorderly behaviour during a rowdy protest in April last year.

Chow Nok-hang and Wong Hin-wai were originally arrested for disrupting a speech by former transport chief Eva Cheng as a protest against an MTR fare rise.

They were convicted of disorderly behaviour in a public place and sentenced, in July this year, to two weeks in jail.

But that penalty was reduced to fines of HK$2,000 and HK$3,000, respectively, in an appeal to the High Court later in July.

The Court of Final Appeal on Tuesday granted leave for their new appeal. But it stressed that this must not be seen as the court condoning non-peaceful protests.

During Cheng’s speech, Chow ran onto a stage to throw a pile of “hell banknotes” – traditional paper offerings for the dead – at her. Then Wong grabbed her microphone from its stand.