Activist sentenced to four months in prison for insulting Chinese flag
Hong Kong: Activist sentenced to four months in prison for insulting Chinese flag
He is accused of throwing a Chinese flag during clashes in May 2019 in front of the local parliament
Prosecutions against figures of the pro-democracy movement are on the rise in Hong Kong. A young Hong Kong activist was sentenced to four months in prison on Tuesday for insulting the Chinese flag and illegally gathering.
Tony Chung, the leader of a now-disbanded group calling for Hong Kong independence, was found guilty in early December of throwing a Chinese flag during clashes in May 2019 in front of the local parliament (Legco).
Money laundering and conspiracy
Tony Chung, 19, will await another trial for "secession" while in custody, punishable by life imprisonment under the national security law imposed by Beijing on the semi-autonomous territory atthe end of June. He is the first political figure to be prosecuted for violating new legislation designed to restore "order and stability" after seven months of monster, and often violent, protests in 2019. On Wednesday, he was sentenced to three months in prison for each of the two acts for which he had been convicted: contempt of the national flag and unlawful assembly. He will have to serve four months in detention.
He is also charged with money laundering and conspiracy to publish seditious content. The young man was arrested in late October by plainclothes police officers a few metres from the US consulate and has been in pre-trial detention ever since. According to a group calling himself "Friends of Hong Kong", the young activist was arrested by the police that day because he wanted to seek asylum at the US consulate in Hong Kong.
Extraditions to China
Many pro-democracy activists have left the city to seek refuge abroad since Beijing stepped up a crackdown on movements that denounce China's takeover of the country. Under the controversial law, which gives way to broad interpretation, activists who express their opinions can be accused of "subversion" and "collusion with foreign forces".
It also put an end to the legal safeguard that had previously separated Hong Kong's theoretically independent and widely recognized judicial system from that of mainland China, which is highly opaque and controlled by the Chinese Communist Party. The change paved the way for the extradition of suspects to China. On Sunday, China's CGTN television station reported that Hong Kong police have placed 30 people, who are not currently in the city, on a list of people wanted for violating the national security law.
Source:- Flash News and News Agencies