{"id":146657,"date":"2018-01-16T03:29:01","date_gmt":"2018-01-16T08:29:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=146657"},"modified":"2025-01-13T22:25:09","modified_gmt":"2025-01-14T03:25:09","slug":"hong-kong-court-to-rule-later-on-3-activists-prison-terms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2018\/01\/16\/hong-kong-court-to-rule-later-on-3-activists-prison-terms\/","title":{"rendered":"Hong Kong court to rule later on 3 activists’ prison terms"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"<\/a>
Bail for the three was extended (Pixabay photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

HONG KONG — Three Hong Kong activists will have to wait to learn the outcome of their final appeal Tuesday to overturn prison sentences for their roles in sparking 2014’s massive pro-democracy protests in the semiautonomous Chinese city.<\/p>\n

Judges at Hong Kong’s top court said they would issue their decision at a later, unspecified date following the appeal hearing for Joshua Wong, Nathan Law and Alex Chow against the sentences of up to eight months. Bail for the three was extended.<\/p>\n

The three were initially let off with suspended or community service sentences after they were convicted of taking part in or inciting an unlawful assembly by storming a courtyard at government headquarters to kick-off the protests.<\/p>\n

But the case sparked controversy when the justice secretary requested a sentencing review that resulted in stiffer sentences, raising concerns about rule of law and fears that the city’s Beijing-backed government is tightening up on dissent.<\/p>\n

The trio’s lawyers said the lower court overstepped its boundaries and put too much emphasis on the need for deterrence in handing down the revised harsher sentence.<\/p>\n

\u201cLaying down a heavy sentence will have a deterrent effect, but a balance has to be held between a deterrent and stifling young idealistic people,\u201d Law’s lawyer, Robert Pang, told the judges.<\/p>\n

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<\/p>\n

Wong’s lawyer also argued that under Hong Kong law, the 21-year-old shouldn’t have been sent to prison because he was a minor at the time.<\/p>\n

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<\/p>\n

Speaking on the courthouse steps before the hearing, Wong estimated he had a 50-50 chance of going back to prison. \u201cHowever I still believe that when people are united we will not be defeated.<\/p>\n

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\u201d<\/p>\n

Wong made world headlines and starred in a Netflix documentary after leading the \u201cUmbrella Movement\u201d protests while still a teenager. The protests, which brought parts of the busy Asian financial hub to a halt over Beijing’s plan to restrict elections for top leader, ended without resolution after 11 weeks.<\/p>\n

The three were given revised sentences ranging from six to eight months of prison time in last year’s ruling but were bailed partway through when they won permission to appeal.<\/p>\n

Wong could end up back in prison as soon as Wednesday, when he is due to be sentenced in a separate court case also related to the 2014 protests.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

HONG KONG — Three Hong Kong activists will have to wait to learn the outcome of their final appeal Tuesday …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":127494,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,3936],"tags":[31552,31550,31551,43471],"class_list":["post-146657","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","category-opinion","tag-alex-chow","tag-joshua-wong","tag-nathan-law","tag-robert-pang","mauthors-kelvin-chan","mauthors-the-associated-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146657","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=146657"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146657\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":283925,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146657\/revisions\/283925"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/127494"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=146657"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=146657"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=146657"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}