Hong Kong: 7 pro-democracy protesters sentenced for illegal assembly
Pro-democracy activists outside the Hong Kong District Court on October 16, 2021, to denounce the conviction of 7 protesters for illegal assembly.
AFP - BERTHA WANG
Text by: RFI Follow
2 min
Seven people were sentenced this Saturday, October 16 to terms ranging from six months to one year in prison.
They had participated in the organization of the gigantic banned demonstration of July 1, 2020, where hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets of Hong Kong to demand more democracy.
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This time, the Hong Kong justice did not use the
law on national security
- this famous law imposed last year by Beijing.
To sentence seven pro-democracy protesters on Saturday to terms ranging from six months to one year in prison, the judge used a British colonial-era law on illegal gatherings.
It has already enabled him to already send dozens of people to prison.
And for casue, “
since August 2019, the police no longer give authorization for demonstrations,
underlines Jean-Philippe Béja, emeritus research director at the CNRS, at the microphone of
Christophe Paget
, of the International service of RFI.
So every demonstration that took place especially in the second part of 2019 in full movement against the article on extradition, has been illegal.
This has been used very extensively to eliminate the leaders of the civilian human rights front and also a large part of the Democrats as the Democrats called for these protests.
"
►
See also: Hong Kong: prison sentences for 9 activists who participated in vigils for Tiananmen
"
They lose nothing to wait
"
According to Jean-Philippe Béja, the local government wants to show its public opinion that it is "
in the process of restoring order in Hong Kong without needing this law [on national security] imposed by Beijing to be able to condemn the perpetrators. of trouble.
"
But pro-democracy activists
"
Do not lose anything to wait,
warns the sinologist.
Many of them are charged under this
[national security] law
.
[...] All those who participated in the primaries organized by the Democratic Party for the elections of September 2020 are charged with violating the law on national security.
And the penalty for violating this law is life imprisonment.
"
►
To read also: Four new arrests in pro-democracy circles in Hong Kong
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