Hong Kong democracy activist Joshua Wong cleared to travel after bail blunder leads to day of detention

The 22-year-old was arrested at the airport on Sunday for breaching travel restrictions, on his way to Germany and the US

Eastern Court hears his bail terms were previously taken down inaccurately, leading to a mix-up

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Joshua Wong was cleared to travel to Germany and the US. Photo: Winson Wong

Published: 12:18pm, 9 Sep 2019Updated: 10:29pm, 9 Sep 2019

Pro-democracy activist Joshua Wong Chi-fung was on Monday bailed and cleared to travel abroad as he seeks to boost global support for the Hong Kong democracy movement, after a court acknowledged an administrative blunder led to him being detained for a day.

Wong, 22, was arrested at Hong Kong International Airport on Sunday morning for breaching the bail conditions imposed after he was charged over an anti-government protest on June 21.

But Eastern Court heard on Monday the apparent breach had been the result of inaccurate documentation of Wong’s bail terms, despite them having been read out correctly in court at the bail hearing.

Instead of lifting the travel ban on September 8 as the magistrate had agreed to, law enforcement read that Wong was only allowed to leave Hong Kong on September 12 and stopped him at the border.

Principal Magistrate Bina Chainrai said it was “quite clearly an oversight by the court”.

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