Lawmakers' suspended jail terms put Legco seats at risk

Two radical lawmakers could lose their seat after being sentenced for five to six weeks in prison, suspended for at least a year, for their leading role in an unlawful assembly in July 2011.

People Power lawmaker Albert Chan Wai-yip and former party colleague Wong Yuk-man, who resigned from the party on Monday, slammed the “unreasonable” sentencing and vowed to appeal.

Wong was sentenced to six weeks in jail, suspended for 14 months; and Chan was sentenced to five weeks in jail, suspended for a year.

They were also fined HK$4,800 each.

Issuing the sentence on Tuesday, Eastern Court Magistrate Joseph To Ho-shing said Wong received a heavier punishment for making false accusations in court against the police.

Dismissing the convicted duo’s claim that they were protesting against the draconian Public Order Ordinance, To emphasised that “unless a law was declared unconstitutional by the court, [no one can choose] to obey a law or not... No one is above the law either, otherwise the rule of law, as a core value of Hong Kong, would be groundless”.