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.
Responding to critics raising the alarm over the perceived erosion of citizens’ rights, the city’s leader said Hong Kong’s international reputation for upholding the rule of law must not be tarnished.
Lam pointed out that all prosecutorial decisions were made by the Department of Justice, free of outside influence, and that the city ranked eighth in the world in terms of judicial independence.
“So these hard-earned international reputations must not be affected by groundless attacks and criticisms made by some individuals,” Lam said. “As the chief executive, I am responsible for pointing out these fallacies.”
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Tai, Chan and Chu were each found guilty of one count of conspiracy to cause a public nuisance.
Tai and Chan were also convicted of one further count of inciting others to commit the same offence, as was Lee Wing-tat, 63, a former Democratic Party lawmaker.
Opposition lawmakers Tanya Chan, 47, and Shiu Ka-chun, 49, former student leaders Eason Chung Yiu-wa, 26, and Cheung, and League of Social Democrats vice-chairman Raphael Wong Ho-ming, 30, were all found guilty of one count each of inciting others to incite, and one count each of inciting.
A day after their convictions, their lawyers reminded the court the defendants had remained peaceful throughout the movement.
“Cheung did not use any violence and more importantly he did not incite other people to use violence,” barrister Hectar Pun, for Tommy Cheung, said.
Some of the defendants took over from their lawyers’ mitigation speeches and made last-ditch appeals to the court, and their supporters.
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“Perhaps pragmatists will say that we only talk about ideals, and never act on them,” Cheung said. “But if students were all worldly and tactful, who would be left to wholeheartedly pursue ideals and strive to bring changes to our society.”
He urged supporters to remain resilient.
Chung, another student leader at the time, instructed his barrister, Philip Dykes SC, not to advance any mitigation on his behalf as he said the case was not about him.
“They are prosecuting those who have or have not taken part in the umbrella movement, those who treasure Hong Kong,” he said, reading from a prepared statement. He was the only one who declined to ask for a community service sentence.
Tanya Chan said she was honoured to have contributed to the city, while Lee described his participation in the movement as “the greatest honour in my life”.
Like several others, Wong wrote in a letter that he had no regrets, and that the civil disobedience movement “was inevitable and was the only way out”.
Wong urged the court not to jail Chu because of his ailing health, a request made also by Chan Kin-man and Tai a day ago.
Their speeches, which they presented as a final opportunity to reiterate their beliefs, won rounds of applause from dozens of supporters who packed the courtroom on Wednesday.
Following their convictions, the European Commission’s deputy chief spokeswoman, Mina Andreeva, said a recent wave of court cases related to political activism in Hong Kong “could have a detrimental effect on its democratic development”.
She said the fundamental rights and freedoms granted to citizens, including that of speech and peaceful assembly, were essential to the city’s success.
The 2014 protests were sparked by Beijing’s refusal to allow voters to nominate candidates in a one-person, one-vote electoral reform proposal it issued in August that year.
Andreeva said the commission was looking forward to electoral reform in the city that “is democratic, fair, open, transparent and meets the Hong Kong people’s aspirations for universal suffrage”.
Additional reporting by Sum Lok-kei