Media boss jailed as China clamps down on dissent

A HONG Kong court sentenced five leading pro-democracy advocates, including media tycoon Jimmy Lai, to up to 18 months in prison for organising a march during the 2019 anti-government protests that triggered the sweeping crackdown from Beijing.

A total of nine advocates were given jail terms, but four of them, including 82-year-old lawyer and former lawmaker Martin Lee, had their sentences suspended after their age and accomplishments were taken into consideration.

They were found guilty earlier this month of organising and participating in a massive protest in August

2019, when an estimated 1.7 million people marched in opposition to a bill that would have allowed suspects to be extradited to mainland China.

Their convictions and sentencing are another blow to the city’s flagging democracy movement, which is facing an unprecedented crackdown by Beijing and Hong Kong authorities.

The court suspended the 11-month prison sentence of Lee, an 82-year-old politician and former lawmaker known for his advocacy for human rights and democracy, for two years because of his age.

Lai, inset, the founder of Hong

Kong’s Apple Daily tabloid, was sentenced to 12 months in prison.

He was already held on other charges, including collusion with foreign forces to intervene in the city’s affairs, a new crime under a sweeping national security law that Beijing imposed on the city in 2020.

Lee Cheuk-yan, a pro-democracy activist and former lawmaker who helped organise annual candlelight vigils in Hong Kong on the anniversary of the bloody crackdown on pro-democracy protests in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square in 1989, was sentenced to 12 months in prison.

Lawyers Albert Ho and Margaret Ng both had their 12-month jail sentences suspended for two years.

Former politician Leung Kwok-hung was sentenced to 18 months, while another former legislator, Cyd Ho, was given a jail sentence of eight months.

Two other former politicians, Au Nok-hin and Leung Yiuchung, who previously pleaded guilty, were also given jail sentences.

Au got 10 months while Leung’s eight-month jail term was suspended for one year.

Beijing had pledged to allow civil liberties for 50 years after it reverted to Chinese rule in 1997.