Hong Kong "Occupy" Leaders Plead Not Guilty on Public Nuisance Charges

HONG KONG (Reuters) – Three leaders of the 2014 Occupy Civil Disobedience Movement in Hong Kong have pleaded not guilty to public nuisance charges in a crowded court in the Chinese-controlled city, where more than 100 protesters have been arrested. mobilized to support activists.

Law professor Benny Tai, 54, sociology professor Chan Kin-man, 59, and retired minister, Chu Yiu-ming, 74, face three charges of conspiracy in order to commit a public nuisance, incitement to commit a public nuisance and incitement to incite to a public nuisance.

Each charge is punishable by up to seven years' imprisonment. Six other people are also charged in a case that comes as the civil liberties of the financial center come under increasing pressure.

Supporters applauded and applauded when democracy activists entered the packed hall, with Tai, Chan and Chu wearing black jackets.

Another defendant, Raphael Wong, said while pleading not guilty: "I want universal suffrage".

The nine members were provocative in court as they decried what some called a "political persecution" for what was conceived as a peaceful civil disobedience campaign.

Chan announced last week that he would be taking early retirement at the Chinese University of Hong Kong in order to avoid the risk of being fired when he was to be jailed. Tai told Reuters that he hoped the lawsuit would be an opportunity to "restart the spirit of the people".

& # 39; POWER TO PEOPLE & # 39;

The demonstrators waved yellow umbrellas, a symbol of the pro-democracy movement, and raised their fists before the audience, chanting: "I want universal suffrage".

Another protester brandished an umbrella with the words "Power to the People".

In 2013, Tai, Chan and Chu began promulgating and planning a non-violent civil disobedience campaign to occupy the streets of the city's central business district if China did not allow a truly democratic vote by its next leader.

The "Occupy" campaign began in September 2014 and has become an integral part of the biggest populist challenge of Chinese Communist Party leaders since the Tiananmen Square protests in Beijing in 1989.

Hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets of Hong Kong to occupy the main roads continuously and continuously for nearly three months.

Among the six other defendants are Lee Wing-tat, a former Democratic Party member, Democratic legislator Tanya Chan, legislator Shiu Ka-chun and student leaders Tommy Cheung and Eason Chung.

The trial should last about 20 days.

The case could have repercussions on hundreds of other protesters who have not yet been charged.

Hong Kong returned to Chinese rule in 1997 according to a "one country, two systems" formula, with the guarantee of a high degree of autonomy and private freedoms of Chinese citizenship, including the freedom to speech and the right to protest.

However, critics including foreign governments, business groups and activists say the guarantee is getting weaker.

The US-China Economic and Security Review Commission warned in a report to Congress last week that China had "stepped up its interference" over Hong Kong and "shut down the political space of activists of democracy "to express their dissatisfaction".

Authorities have banned a political party advocating for the independence of Hong Kong, banned democracy activists from participating in local elections and banned six opposition legislators from sitting in the legislature.

A Financial Times reporter, Victor Mallet, was expelled from the city last week after helping to organize an independence rights activist at the foreign correspondents' club. What the critics called "violation of freedom of expression".

Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam has repeatedly pointed out that Hong Kong respects the media and other freedoms, but has so far refused to explain Mallet's de facto deportation.