Time.news – The Hong Kong media tycoon, Jimmy Lai, will face 14 months in prison for organizing and taking part in pro-democracy demonstrations in August 2019. The founder of the opposition tabloid Apple Daily was one of nine pro-democracy activists in court in the former British colony’s courtroom.
He was sentenced to 12 months in prison for the demonstration on August 18, 2019, then the judge Amanda Jane Woodcock of West Kowloon Court imposed another one on him at 8 months for his role in the other unauthorized protest on August 31, 2019, a sentence he shares with three other defendants.
Lai is already in jail for violating the national security law imposed by Beijing last year and has been escorted to court. In addition to Lai, Judge Woodcock sentenced the former congressman Leung Kwok-hung to a year and a half in prison and the vice president of the Labor Party Lee Cheuk-yan to one year.
The judge also sentenced Lee to another six months for his involvement in the August 31 protest, but in total he will spend 14 months in prison.
Six other Hong Kong activists were sentenced to sentences of between eight months and one year in prison, but the judge decided to suspend the sentence for 24 months for some of these defendants.
Martin Lee, the leading Hong Kong attorney, and the attorney Margaret Ng they were sentenced to 11 and 12 months respectively, with suspended sentences for two years. Activists too Albert Ho e Leung Yiu-chung they were sentenced to 12 and 8 months each (sentences suspended for 24 months) and the sentence for activist Yeung Sum, sentenced to 8 months for the August 31 protest, was also suspended.
On April 1, the defendants were found guilty of organizing and participating in the protest on August 18, 2019. For that day, the police had only authorized one demonstration in the park but the organizers went ahead with their original plan. Judge Woodcock argued that the inmates decided “knowing they were breaking the law”, which “is serious considering the instability of those days.”
For this, “the case implies a direct challenge to police authority. The march was premeditated and caused traffic disruptions. And even if it was peaceful, there was a latent risk that it could end in violence.”
The demonstrations were part of the wave of anti-government protests that inflamed Hong Kong in the second half of 2019 following a controversial extradition bill that, according to opposition and human rights activists, would open the door to possibility for Hong Kong residents to be extradited to mainland China for trial there. Shortly thereafter, Beijing imposed a controversial national security law on the city that included sentences of up to life in prison for cases such as secession or collusion with foreign forces.
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