Nine key Occupy figures – including co-founders Benny Tai, Chan Kin-man and Chu Yiu-ming – chant slogans with hundreds of supporters at Hong Kong court just before public nuisance trial begins
- Biggest trial concerning 2014 civil disobedience movement is expected to last for more than two weeks
- Lawmakers Tanya Chan and Shiu Ka-chun are among the defendants
“We want true democracy,” they yelled in unison, with an intensity that shook West Kowloon Court, where the nine are set to appear in Courtroom 3.
The co-founders – academics Benny Tai Yiu-ting and Dr Chan Kin-man, and Reverend Chu Yiu-ming – face one count of conspiracy to cause public nuisance, inciting others to cause public nuisance, and inciting people to incite others to cause public nuisance during the civil disobedience movement for universal suffrage, which shut down parts of the city for 79 days.
Tai is a legal scholar at the University of Hong Kong, while Chan is an outgoing sociology professor at Chinese University.
Lawmakers Tanya Chan and Shiu Ka-chun, as well as former student leaders Tommy Cheung Sau-yin and Eason Chung Yiu-wah, each face two incitement charges, as does Raphael Wong Ho-ming, the League of Social Democrats vice-chairman.