Hong Kong’s Occupy leaders out on bail and will learn of sentences in two weeks
- West Kowloon Court judge Johnny Chan adjourns case until April 24
- All nine leaders found guilty of charges relating to 79-day pro-democracy protest in 2014
All nine leaders of Hong Kong’s biggest civil disobedience movement who were convicted on public nuisance charges on Tuesday have been granted bail pending sentencing in two weeks’ time.
While they walked out of West Kowloon Court on Wednesday, Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor later hit back at local and international critics accusing her government of political persecution, dismissing their “groundless attacks”.
On the second day of mitigation, Judge Johnny Chan Jong-herng adjourned the case until April 24 after hearing the Occupy leaders express no regret for their roles in the mass pro-democracy protests of 2014 that saw 79 straight days of road blockades.
While nearly all defence lawyers asked Chan to consider community service as a punishment, the judge only requested a pre-sentencing report on its suitability for ex-student leader Tommy Cheung Sau-yin, 24, the youngest of the nine.
This could mean the judge has shut the door on that possibility for the others.
On Tuesday, the court found that the nine, including the three Occupy founders – academics Benny Tai Yiu-ting, 55, and Dr Chan Kin-man, 60, and Baptist minister Reverend Chu Yiu-ming, 75 – had mobilised the crowds to jam major thoroughfares in the heart of the city, in a bid to force the government to bow to their political demands.