Hong Kong media tycoon Jimmy Lai was among eight democracy activists handed new prison sentences today 28th may 2021 for attending protests on the 70th anniversary of the founding of communist China that were followed by a sweeping crackdown.
Lai, who is already behind bars for taking part in earlier protests, must now serve a total of 20 months after pleading guilty to organizing an illegal assembly on October 1, 2019.Seven other leading activists, including 25-year-old youth campaigner Figo Chan, as well as former lawmakers Lee Cheuk-yan and Leung Kwok-hung, were also given new jail sentences.
The new sentences are the latest in a relentless and successful campaign by China to smother dissent and dismantle Hong Kong’s democracy movement.Hong Kong was convulsed by months of huge and often violent pro-democracy protests in 2019 in the most serious challenge to Beijing’s rule since the city’s 1997 handover.
President Xi Jinping oversaw a huge military parade in Beijing, clashes between hardcore protests and police raged across Hong Kong that day.The march attended by the activists who were jailed on Friday remained largely peaceful. But it did not have official police permission, a requirement in Hong Kong.
Hong Kong authorities also banned the annual June 4 vigil marking Beijing’s 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown, with security minister John Lee warning the security law could be used against those who defy the ban.More than 10,000 people were arrested during Hong Kong’s democracy protests, with around 2,500 convicted for various offenses.
Most of the city’s prominent democracy leaders are either under arrest, in jail or have fled overseas.
More than 100 people, including Lai, have been charged under the security law, which carries up to life in jail.
Those handed jail terms on Friday are from the more moderate wing of Hong Kong’s democracy movement. Four were already serving jail sentences for taking part in protests.Many of them have spent decades advocating non-violence in their ultimately fruitless campaign for universal suffrage.
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