Hong Kong protests: court adds to activist Joshua Wong’s jail time with four-month sentence for 2019 mask demonstration
- Veteran activist Koo Sze-yiu, 75, jailed for five months over the same unauthorised rally, which saw attendees flout a government ban on masks that came into effect that morning
- The 24-year-old Wong was already serving a 13½-month sentence connected to the 15-hour siege of police headquarters that year; he is expected to plead guilty to other assembly related charges at the end of the month
Eastern Court on Tuesday sentenced the 24-year-old on charges arising from a Hong Kong Island demonstration on October 5, 2019, when hundreds of people marched from Causeway Bay to Central in protest against a government-imposed mask ban, which came into effect that morning.
His co-defendant, 75-year-old veteran activist Koo Sze-yiu, who took part in the same rally, was jailed for five months, just six days after he completed his jail term in a separate case.
City leader Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor had invoked a colonial-era emergency law, on the grounds of public danger, to prohibit facial coverings at demonstrations in a bid to quell months of anti-government protests, sparked by a now-withdrawn extradition bill.
The Court of Final Appeal has upheld the legality of the ban for all public assemblies, meetings and processions, saying it was a proportionate measure necessary for dealing with the frequent violence that accompanied the protests.