Activist duo jailed over chaos in HK parliament

HONG KONG: Two Hong Kong independence activists, who were stripped of their status as lawmakers in 2016, have been sentenced to four weeks in prison for their role in a fracas that disrupted proceedings in the city’s parliament.

Baggio Leung and Yau Wai-ching belong to Hong Kong’s embattled independence movement, which is calling for a complete split from China for the semi-autonomous city as its freedoms come under threat from Beijing.

The pair were told yesterday that they had “directly hurt the dignity of the legislative council” by judge Wong Sze-lai, who went on to grant them bail pending appeal.

They were held in custody after the sentencing while the court awaited their bail money.

Calls for Hong Kong to split from China have incensed Beijing, and the past two years have seen a crackdown on any expression of pro-independence views.

Yau, 27, and Leung, 31, are the latest activists to be given jail terms on protest-related charges.

They had pleaded not guilty to unlawful assembly and attempted forcible entry after trying to barge in to a legislative council meeting in November 2016.

The duo had been barred from the main chamber pending a court decision over their disqualification from parliament.

They ran into the chamber and after security bundled them out, they and their supporters tried to push their way into a committee room to which the disrupted session had been moved.

They clashed again with security, with at least three staff taken to hospital and police called in.

Despite being elected by the public, the pair were never allowed to take up their seats after protesting at their swearing-in ceremony.

They deliberately misread their oaths of office, inserted expletives and draped themselves in “Hong Kong is not China” flags.

Beijing intervened to ensure they were not given the chance to retake their oaths by making a special “interpretation” of Hong Kong’s mini-constitution.