Ex-head of Hong Kong protest group to spend extra month behind bars after latest conviction for joining illegal rally
- Figo Chan, former convenor of the now-disbanded Civil Human Rights Front, will spend a total of 22 months behind bars following latest conviction
- Chan was given three months, with two to serve concurrently with other sentences, for taking part in unauthorised protest on September 15, 2019
A magistrate has tacked another month onto the jail time being served by the former leader of an umbrella group behind many of Hong Kong’s biggest protests in recent years after he was found guilty of taking part in a fifth unauthorised assembly.
“Dare to act and dare to admit,’ Chan said in the dock. “I plead guilty.”
Magistrate Daniel Tang Siu-hung sentenced the 25-year-old to three months behind bars, with one month to be served consecutively to the activist’s current overall jail term of 21 months, handed down in four previous cases of taking part in an illegal rally.
“Thank you, your honour,” the defendant said upon hearing the verdict.
On Tuesday, Chan admitted to joining the illegal march on September 15, 2019, after the front failed to obtain police permission for a rally calling for universal suffrage. He wore a shirt emblazoned with the phrase “civil disobedience” written in Chinese and marched with thousands of others from Causeway Bay to Central over the course of an hour. He chanted slogans through a microphone while holding up a copy of the Basic Law, the city’s mini-constitution.