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© Reuters. File photograph: Actor Gregory Wong, one of many six defendants who pleaded not responsible to riot in a trial involving individuals who stormed the Legislative Council throughout the pro-democracy protests in 2019, arrives on the court docket in Hong Kong, China February 1, 2024.
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By Jessie Pang and Edward Cho
HONG KONG (Reuters) -A Hong Kong court docket on Saturday sentenced 12 folks to jail phrases from greater than 4 years to almost seven years in a high-profile rioting case linked to the storming of the town legislature throughout a pro-democracy protest in 2019.
The incident was a pivotal second within the months-long protests that embroiled the China-ruled metropolis within the boldest populist rebellion in opposition to Chinese language Communist Occasion rule because the 1989 Tiananmen Sq. protests in Beijing.
Protesters broke into Hong Kong’s legislative council constructing on July 1, 2019, smashing home windows and streaming inside as public anger mounted over an extradition invoice that may have allowed authorities to ship folks to mainland China for trial.
These sentenced by district court docket Choose Li Chi-ho included actor Gregory Wong, 45, who was jailed for six years and two months after pleading not responsible.
Political activists Ventus Lau and Owen Chow, who had pleaded responsible, obtained phrases of 54 months and 20 days, and 61 months and 15 days, respectively.
Li described the incident as a “critical” blow to the town’s rule of regulation.
“The massive variety of protesters, the depth, the distinctive constitutional standing of the Legislative Council, and the intention to weaken the importance of the (Hong Kong) authorities, are insulting,” he mentioned.
The choose described intimately how protesters had rammed their method into the constructing with steel barricades, pelted the realm with eggs, sprayed political slogans on the partitions and inked over a authorities emblem.
The previous president of the College of Hong Kong’s pupil union, Althea Suen, 27, who had pleaded responsible, was sentenced to 4 years and 9 months.
Relations and supporters cried and shouted “Take care!” and “Grasp in there!” because the defendants had been led away from the glass dock.
Chow mentioned the federal government’s refusal to withdraw the extradition invoice after a million folks marched in opposition to it was the instant explanation for the incident.
“It doesn’t matter what punishment the court docket imposes on me, I am going to proceed to maneuver ahead and convert my concern right into a power for change, similar to the day I walked into the chamber,” Chow advised the court docket earlier than the sentences had been handed down.
He mentioned their actions stemmed from a necessity to face up for fundamental human rights that had been below menace from authorities.
“Martin Luther King, chief of the human rights motion who has all the time advocated peaceable and rational demonstrations, as soon as mentioned, “A riot is the language of the unheard,” Chow advised the court docket.
Lau mentioned he had rushed to the scene given his fears of a bloody crackdown by the police. Lau later left Hong Kong returned regardless of the chance of prosecution.
“I do not need the general public to assume all of the folks on this motion solely care about their very own security,” he mentioned.
In a mitigation letter submitted to the court docket final month, actor Wong mentioned his arrest and conviction had basically derailed his profession as an actor because the age of 12.
“I’ll nonetheless assist folks in want with a honest coronary heart,” Wong wrote.
Scholar reporter Wong Ka-ho and on-line media reporter Ma Kai-chung, who had been acquitted of rioting however discovered responsible of “getting into or staying within the precincts of the chamber”, obtained fines of HK$1,500 ($190) and HK$1,000 respectively.
Rioting holds a most seven-year sentence in Hong Kong’s district court docket.
Greater than 10,200 folks had been arrested in relation to the protests in 2019, of whom 2,937 have up to now been charged with offences together with rioting, illegal meeting and legal harm, in keeping with police figures.
Of those, over 870 folks have been charged with rioting, in keeping with the Witness, a web based information portal specialising in authorized information.
($1 = 7.8215 Hong Kong {dollars})
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