HONG KONG (REUTERS) - Hong Kong pro-democracy activist Agnes Chow was released from prison on Saturday (June 12) after serving nearly seven months for her role in an unauthorised assembly during the city's 2019 anti-government protests.
The 24-year-old activist had been convicted together with her long-time activist colleague Joshua Wong for their involvement in an illegal rally near police headquarters in the Chinese-ruled city.
Wong remains in prison and the reason for Ms Chow's early release after being sentenced to 10 months in jail was not clear. The Correctional Services Department said it would not comment on individual cases.
Ms Chow was released from the Tai Lam Correctional Institution in Tuen Mun, in Hong Kong's New Territories district, at about 10am.
She did not speak to media before she was ushered into a car with friends and fellow democracy activists.
Supporters shouted "Agnes Chow add oil", a Cantonese-language expression of encouragement that was widely used at the protests that roiled the city.
Some supporters wore black T-shirts and yellow masks and one held a yellow umbrella, a symbol of protests in the former British colony dating back to 2014.
She later thanked her friends in an Instagram post for braving the rain and said her next plan was to rest properly .
"The painful half year and 20 days, it's finally over," she wrote.
Ms Chow, along with Wong and Mr Nathan Law, who has since been given asylum in Britain, came to prominence as teenage activists during the 2014 protests to demand universal suffrage.
The three founded the democracy group Demosisto in 2016, which dissolved hours after Beijing passed a contentious national security law for the city last year amid fears it could be targeted under the legislation.
The law has stifled the pro-democracy movement and raised concern about prospects for the autonomy Hong Kong was promised under a "one country, two systems" formula when it was handed over to China in 1997.
Ms Chow was also arrested last year on suspicion of "colluding with foreign forces" under the security law but has not faced any charges related to that.
Fluent in Japanese, Ms Chow has a sizable following in Japan, particularly on social media and had travelled to the country frequently before her arrest. She often tweeted in Japanese and has been dubbed the "goddess of democracy" by Japan's media.
