Hong Kong democracy activist Joshua Wong wins appeal against jail term over protest in run-up to Occupy
But Wong, along with Nathan Law and Alex Chow, stops short of claiming victory as ruling also entails tougher punishment for future protests involving violence
Student activist Joshua Wong Chi-fung and two of his comrades-in-arms won a bittersweet appeal on Tuesday as Hong Kong’s top court unanimously quashed their jail terms but upheld strict sentencing guidelines for future illegal protests.
Wong, Nathan Law Kwun-chung and Alex Chow Yong-kang walked free from the Court of Final Appeal after convincing five judges that their original non-custodial sentences for storming a government compound that effectively triggered the 2014 Occupy protests were not manifestly inadequate.
But the student leaders stopped short of celebrating their vindication as the highly anticipated ruling also endorsed new sentencing guidelines laid down by the Court of Appeal last August to impose tougher punishments in cases of unlawful assembly involving violence. The lower court had jailed the trio for six to eight months after the government complained that the original non-custodial sentences were too lenient.
The judges on Tuesday further ruled that civil disobedience, though recognised in Hong Kong, should carry “little (if any) weight” when the acts committed infringed upon criminal law and involved violence “since by definition that act is not one of civil disobedience”.
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Chief Justice Geoffrey Ma Tao-li said before handing down the 66-page judgment: “It was right for the Court of Appeal to send the message that unlawful assemblies involving violence, even the relatively low degree of violence that occurred in the present appeals, will not be condoned, and convictions will justifiably attract prison sentences.”
Outside court, 21-year-old Wong described the judgment as a “sugar-coated harsh punishment”.
“It’s not a time for celebration,” Wong said. “In the future ... maybe more and more activists will be locked up because of this harsh judgment.”
Law, 24, said he received the ruling with a heavy heart.