Hong Kong dissident Joshua Wong and two others jailed for democracy protests

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Leading Hong Kong dissident Joshua Wong was jailed alongside two other young activists on Wednesday for taking part in last year’s huge democracy protests as the crackdown on Beijing’s critics gathers pace.

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Wong, 24, was prosecuted alongside fellow activists Ivan Lam and Agnes Chow over a rally last summer outside the police headquarters.

Their sentences come as critics of the government say it is intensifying a crackdown on the Chinese-ruled city’s wide-ranging freedoms guaranteed when Britain returned it to Beijing in 1997, a charge authorities in China and Hong Kong reject.

“The days ahead will be tough but we will hang in there,” Wong shouted as he was led away.

The three – some of the city’s most visible critics of Beijing’s rule – pleaded guilty to various charges including inciting an unlawful assembly.

“The defendants called on protesters to besiege the headquarters and chanted slogans that undermine the police force,” Magistrate Wong Sze-lai said as she sentenced Wong to 13.5 months, Chow to 10 months and Lam to seven months in jail. She had reduced overall jail terms after their guilty pleas.

“Immediate imprisonment is the only appropriate option,” she said.

Chow, 23, burst into tears when the sentence was read out.

(FRANCE 24 with AFP and REUTERS)

Source: Thanks france24