Days after three youth democracy activists were jailed in Hong Kong, thousands of people took to the streets on Sunday to protest against the court verdict, Reuters reported. They marched down roads in the semi-autonomous city in the sweltering heat, brandishing banners that read “Release all political prisoners” and “It is not a crime to fight against totalitarianism”.
Some banners during the protest also criticised Justice Secretary Rimsky Yuen, who had overruled advises from legal officials against sending the three activists to jail.
On Thursday, Joshua Wong, Nathan Law and Alex Chow were sentenced to prison after they were found guilty of unlawful assembly last year. They were earlier sentenced to community service. But the Hong Kong Department of Justice had applied for a review, arguing that the punishment was too lenient.
Law, Wong and Chow have also been barred from participating in local elections in the next five years.
Wong became a prominent face of the student-led democracy movement when he was 17, demanding political freedom from China and suffrage. He had also spearheaded the “Umbrella Movement”, gathering thousands of protestors and demanding democracy.
Law, who had become Hong Kong’s youngest ever elected legislator, was sacked from his seat last month.
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