Hong Kong activist Joshua Wong jailed for 3 months over information breach

HONG KONG – Hong Kong activist Joshua Wong was sentenced on Monday to three months in prison over a breach of information involving a police officer.

The 26-year-old rose to prominence in 2014 when, as a bespectacled teenager, he emerged as a leader of student-led democracy protests in which roads in the heart of the financial centre were blocked for 79 days.

In Monday’s ruling, he was sentenced for breaching a court ban on disclosing personal information about a police officer who opened fire at a protest in 2019, according to a post on Wong’s Facebook account.

Wong attended the hearing but did not speak, a witness in the court said.

The court did not immediately publish a written judgment, delivering only an oral sentencing on Monday. Wong’s lawyer was not immediately available for comment.

Wong galvanised international support for Hong Kong’s pro-democracy movement,

meeting politicians from the United States,

Europe and elsewhere, and drawing the wrath of Beijing, which says he is a “black hand” of foreign forces.

Wong was

nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize in 2018

for his role in the 2014 protests, known as the Umbrella Movement because of the umbrellas protesters wielded to protect themselves from water cannon and tear gas.

Wong is

one of 47 pro-democracy figures

who have been charged with conspiracy to commit subversion under a national security law imposed by Beijing in 2020, for participating in an unofficial primary election that year.

Western governments have criticised the law as a tool to crush dissent, but the Chinese and Hong Kong authorities say it has brought stability to the financial hub after months of sometimes violent protests in 2019. REUTERS