Chinese regime imposed 14 months in prison on Hong Kong press mogul for pro-democracy protests in 2019

Hong Kong press mogul, Jimmy Lai was sentenced this Friday to 14 months in prison for his role in organizing one of the biggest pro-democracy protests in 2019.

At first, Lai was sentenced to 12 months in prison, but later he was sentenced to eight more for participating in another anti-government protest. Yet yesHe will only have to spend 14 months in prison, not 20, because part of the serving period of the two sentences coincides..

This is the first time that Lai, 73, currently in pre-trial detention after being detained for violating China’s national security law, has been convicted of his activism.

On the sidelines of Lai – founder of the newspaper Apple Daily, critic of Beijing-, the judge Amanda jane woodcock of West Kowloon Court also handed down a sentence of a year and a half in prison for former lawmaker Leung Kwok-hung and another from one year for Labor vice chairman Lee Cheuk-yan.

In addition, others six activists from Hong Kong They were also sentenced but the official length of sentences is still awaited.

These are the cases of Martin Lee -one of Hong Kong’s best-known lawyers- and lawyer Margaret ng, who were sentenced to 11 and 12 months, respectively, with a two-year suspension of his sentence.

While the activists Albert Ho y Leung Yiu-chung they were each condemned to 12 and 8 months, but his sentence is also suspended for 24 months.

On April 1, Lai and these activists were convicted or pleaded guilty to having organized and participated in the aforementioned demonstration, which took place on August 18, 2019.

The police had only authorized a concentration in the downtown Victoria Park that day, but organizers decided to continue with their original plan and the protest led to a march that defense lawyers justified by making sure their clients intended to avoid the crowds.

Organizers then reported 1.7 million protesters, that is, nearly one in four Hong Kongers, a figure that could not be independently verified.

“There is no right as precious to Hong Kong people as freedom of expression and freedom of peaceful assembly.”Said lawyer Margaret Ng, who is defending herself.

She said she was ready to stand up for those who “as a last resort must collectively voice their anguish and urge the government to respond.” His speech was greeted with applause.

Judge Amanda Woodcock said earlier that the rally had severely disrupted traffic and the fact that it was peaceful could not be an excuse.

(With information from AFP and EFE)

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