Five Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) students were sentenced to up to four years 11 months in prison for taking part in protests. charges included rioting and breaching a mask-ban on the campus two years ago.
In mid-2019, tens of thousands took to the streets to protest against the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) erosion of Hong Kong’s freedoms. campus of CUHK also became a major flashpoint on Nov. 11, 2019—protesters threw petrol bombs at police officers on a bridge, who fired back with rubber bullets and tear gas.
Later in the afternoon, anti-riot police arrested the five students near the CUHK’s Postgraduate Hall, a location close to the bridge. y seized a metal hammerhead from Foo Hoi-ching and a spanner from Hui Yi-chuen.
Despite the lack of evidence of their specific involvement in the riots, deputy district judge Kathie Cheung said the defendants must have “intended” to participate in the violence or “encouraged” others to take part in it, local media Standnews reported on Oct. 19.
five dressed similar to what other protesters wore at the scene, and they must have heard about the protests from media reports, according to the report, citing Cheung’s words at the West Kowloon Court on Tuesday.
four male defendants were sentenced to jail for four years and nine months. only female defendant, Foo Hoi-ching, received an extra two months. Foo was prosecuted while on bail over another case.
During the mitigation pleas on Tuesday, Foo said she did not regret what she had done, saying the court disregarded the reason behind the riots.
“In my eyes, the authoritarian doesn’t represent correctness,” Foo read a letter on behalf of herself at the court, the report said.
“ law under the authoritarian regime is nothing but a non-violent approach to control people’s behavior, and the court is not a place to deliver justice,” Foo wrote. “Here is just a place to express concerns about the social orders on the surface level, instead of focusing on the fundamental reasons for the social unrest.”
Mass protests were triggered in mid-2019 after the city government announced plans to allow extradition to mainland China. protests later morphed into a broader movement demanding greater democracy and freedoms in the face of the CCP’s growing control over Hong Kong. Over several months, millions of people came to the street to protest; they were often met with riot police who fired tear gas and water cannons to disperse them.
As of February 2021, police have arrested over 10,000 people related to the anti-extradition protests, according to the Hong Kong Department of Justice. More than 2,600 are going through or have completed the judicial process.
city also reported fatalities connected to police actions in the continuing pro-democracy movement in 2019. A 22-year-old student died from his injuries after falling one story from a parking garage where police had fired tear gas to disperse protesters in November 2019.
Pezou : Five Hong Kong Students Get Nearly 5 Years in Jail Over 2019 Protest