Four more activists who were jailed last month over their participation in the 2014 Northeast New Territories development protests outside the Legislative Council have filed appeals.
A Department of Justice spokesperson confirmed to HKFP that four more defendants – Raphael Wong Ho-ming, Chu Wai-chung, Kole Chow Koot-yin, and Chan Pak-shan – filed notices of motions on Tuesday.
As with the other eight defendants who filed appeals earlier this week, they “seek a certificate from the Court of Appeal that points of law of great and general importance is involved in the decision of the case.” Of the 13 jailed in relation to the case, only Billy Chiu Hin-chung has not filed an appeal.
Wong, who is vice-chairman of the League of Social Democrats, also appeared in court on Tuesday. He is facing public nuisance charges over his involvement in the pro-democracy Occupy protests in 2014.
The demonstrations took place in response to Finance Committee chair Ng Leung-sing’s attempts to end a filibuster by the pro-democracy camp over a controversial northeast New Territories development proposal.
The defendants were convicted of unlawful assembly offences, and had already finished serving their initial community service sentences. However, the Department of Justice appealed, seeking harsher sentences. The Court of Appeal then sentenced the members of the group to eight to 13 months in prison.
In a judgment handed down last Monday, the Court of Appeal said that the protesters’ act of charging at the Legislative Council building “with violence” was “inconsistent with the spirit of civil disobedience.”
