16-3-2024 (HONG KONG) A significant verdict was handed down by a Hong Kong court on Saturday, March 16th, as 12 individuals were sentenced to jail terms ranging up to almost seven years in connection to a highly publicized rioting incident tied to the storming of the city’s legislature during a 2019 anti-government demonstration.
This incident marked a crucial juncture in the prolonged protests that gripped the city, representing one of the most audacious challenges against the rule of the Chinese Communist Party since the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989 in Beijing.
The turmoil erupted on July 1st, 2019, when protesters forcibly entered Hong Kong’s legislative council building, shattering windows and flooding the interior with demonstrators. This surge of public outrage was fuelled by opposition to an extradition bill that had been proposed, which would have granted authorities the power to transfer individuals to mainland China for trial.
Among those handed sentences by District Court Judge Li Chi-ho was actor Gregory Wong, aged 45, who maintained his innocence throughout the proceedings. Additionally, political activists Ventus Lau and Owen Chow, who had previously pleaded guilty, were also subject to incarceration.
