Hong Kong activist Joshua Wong jailed 13.5 months for anti-government protest

[HONG KONG] Joshua Wong, 24, one of Hong Kong's most prominent pro-democracy activists, was jailed on Wednesday for a total of 13.5 months after pleading guilty to charges related to unlawful assembly at last year's anti-government protests.

Wong's long-time colleagues Agnes Chow, 23, and Ivan Lam, 26, were jailed for a total of 10 and seven months, respectively, after pleading guilty to charges linked to the same siege of police headquarters at the height of the protests in June 2019.

The judge reduced overall jail terms after their guilty pleas.

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.

REUTERS