Home » Business » Hong Kong activist Joshua Wong pleads guilty: ‘cell won’t stop activism’ | NOW

Hong Kong activist Joshua Wong pleads guilty: ‘cell won’t stop activism’ | NOW

Hong Kong pro-democratic activist Joshua Wong said in court on Monday that he was guilty of organizing and participating in a banned protest last year. Wong can be sentenced to five years in prison. “Neither prison walls, nor election cancellation, nor arbitrary laws can stop our activism,” Wong said ahead of his trial against reporters.

Two other dissidents, Ivan Lam and Agnes Chow, also pleaded guilty on Monday. All three are being prosecuted over a protest that took place outside the city police headquarters last year.

Wong said he expects to be detained immediately. “Probably the authorities want us to go to prison forever. But now is not the time to fly to Beijing and surrender.”

The Hong Kong activist was only 17 years old when he became the face of the umbrella movement, which organized peaceful protests for months. Last year, there were again months-long, sometimes violent protests in the city, with millions of residents taking to the streets to demonstrate against China’s influence in the city.

The 24-year-old activist was previously detained for his role in the pro-democratic movement. For example, in 2019 he was jailed for five weeks due to contempt of the court.

Controversial security law leads to self-censorship

Hong Kong’s pro-China government was tough on protesters in last year’s protests. One introduced earlier this year security law criminalized undermining or repelling Chinese influence in Hong Kong. In case of prosecution, a person can receive a life sentence.

The law is very arbitrary because there are no clear guidelines and Beijing is allowed to determine what is covered. As a result, thousands of Hong Kongers deleted their social media profiles for fear of arbitrary prosecution.

Wong also changed tack and dissolved his pro-democracy group Demosisto shortly after the introduction of the law.

– .

Leave a Comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.