Activists Joshua Wong, Nathan Law and Alex Chow are appealing a previous court ruling which found them guilty of unlawful assembly offences after the trio stormed Admiralty’s Civic Square in September 2014, kickstarting Hong Kong’s pro-democracy Occupy protests.
The trio had led protesters to occupy the forecourt of the government headquarters in Admiralty in 2014 – an incident which helped spark the 79-day demonstrations. Wong and Chow were convicted of participating in an unlawful assembly, and Law was found guilty of inciting others to take part in an unlawful assembly on July 15. Wong and Law were given 80 and 120 hours of community service respectively, while Chow was sentenced to three weeks in jail, suspended for one year, in August.
Speaking to reporters in front of the High Court, Law said that the directions hearing on Thursday morning concerned the three defendants’ application for appeal over the court decision made in the case. As court procedures are ongoing, Law only said that they were appealing certain propositions of law, adding that the discussion of the details will be left to the court.
Law also said that they will submit the relevant documents within the month, and that the court hearing has been scheduled for May 22 to 24.
Wong and Law acknowledged that the Department of Justice was currently also appealing their sentences, but said they were two different cases and the court procedures were separate. The government was granted leave to appeal last October.
