Hong Kong democracy leader Joshua Wong sent back to jail

HONG KONG: One of the young leaders of Hong Kong`s 2014 "Umbrella" pro-democracy street protests was sent back to jail on Thursday after losing an appeal against a prison term for contempt of court. Joshua Wong, 22, was sentenced to three months in jail in January last year for disobeying a court order and not leaving a protest zone during the rallies that blocked major roads in the Chinese-ruled city for nearly three months.

The Court of Appeal upheld the conviction but reduced his jail sentence to two months, citing his young age as a reason. He had earlier served six days before being released pending the appeal. Wong, then just 17, was at the forefront of the broad civil disobedience movement that presented China’s Communist Party rulers in Beijing with one of their biggest political challenges in decades.

"It is an affront to the court and must be met with a deterrent sentence," the three judges said in a written summary. "Any suggestion that he is punished because of his status or notoriety as a committed social activist or any other reason, whatever it might be, is entirely baseless and misconceived."

As guards led Wong away, he shouted: "Everyone keeps going!" Dozens of supporters in the public gallery cheered back in response. Dozens more had gathered outside the court building, some waving yellow umbrellas - the symbol of the 2014 protests. Both Wong and his supporters also called for the scrapping of Hong Kong government proposals to remove long-standing blocks on extraditing wanted suspects from Hong Kong to countries with which the city has no extradition agreements - including mainland China.

"Even though they can lock up our bodies, they can`t lock up our minds," Wong said as he entered the court to hear the verdict. Britain returned Hong Kong to Chinese rule in 1997 with a guarantee of wide-ranging freedoms, including an independent judiciary and freedom of speech, but critics accuse Beijing of increasing pressure on the freewheeling global financial hub.

Wong`s sentence comes as concerns widen over the extradition amendments, uniting some opposition, business and legal groups as well as Western governments. More street protests are expected in coming weeks, with some seeing the extradition plans as the latest sign of Beijing`s interference. China`s main representative "Liaison Office" in Hong Kong said in a statement on Wednesday that the extradition law was urgently needed and had a sound legal foundation. 

In a related case in February last year, Hong Kong’s highest court freed Wong and two other leaders in a stark reversal of an earlier jail sentence but warned against future acts of dissent.