Hong Kong activist imprisoned for six years for Fishball riots
Hong Kong’s leading independence activist was yesterday jailed for six years over his involvement in the 2016 street protests.
Edward Leung, 27, was convicted in May of rioting in the battles with police, when demonstrators threw bricks from pavements and set rubbish alight in the commercial district of Mong Kok. Judge Anthea Pang said Leung’s actions were “wanton and vicious”.
In January he was jailed for a year after pleading guilty to assaulting a police officer during the clashes. The two terms will run concurrently.
The protests began as a rally to protect illegal hawkers from health inspectors but turned against the authorities in Hong Kong and Beijing. At the forefront were “localists”, radical groups who promoted a split from China. They became active after the failure of pro-democracy rallies in 2014 to win concessions from Beijing on political reform.
Leung was the head of localist group Hong Kong Indigenous and a rising star on the political scene as the fledgling independence movement gathered momentum.
Chris Patten, Hong Kong’s last British governor, criticised Leung’s sentence, which was handed down under a public order ordinance. Mr Patten said “the vague definitions in the legislation are open to abuse and do not conform” with international standards.
At least 16 people were jailed over the clashes but unlike Leung, none were known activists. Two protesters were jailed for seven years and three and a half years.
Dozens were arrested in the 2016 protests, dubbed the Fishball Revolution after the city’s street snack, with many officers and civilians injured.
The defence said Leung, who pleaded not guilty, had no intention to riot but wanted to “protect Hong Kong culture”.
Pro-democracy activist Joshua Wong, who has campaigned for self-determination but not independence, attended the trial yesterday.
“Edward Leung’s six-year sentence is the harshest imposed on an opposition activist since 1997, bizarre even in Hong Kong’s present era of political prisoners,” he wrote on Twitter.