Hong Kong activist and business tycoon Jimmy Lai will serve 13 months in prison for urging participation in last year's banned Tiananmen vigil, amid a crackdown by Chinese authorities that has rolled back the semi-autonomous city's civil liberties.He was convicted of urging people to take part in a banned vigil honouring those killed in Tiananmen Square in 1989The District Court convicted seven others on similar charges on Monday and handed out sentences of up to 14 months.
Mr Lai, the founder of the now-closed pro-democracy newspaper Apple Daily, has already been jailed for taking part in pro-democracy protests for which he will serve a total of 20 months. Two other defendants convicted along with Mr Lai, lawyer Chow Hang-tung and former reporter Gwyneth Ho, were sentenced to 12 and six months respectively for participating in the vigil.The trio had previously pleaded not guilty to the charges.News outlet Hong Kong Free Press reported that Mr Lai's lawyer read out a letter from the businessman in court.
Mr Lai, 73, is currently serving a separate 14-month jail term for other convictions earlier this year also related to unauthorised rallies in 2019, when hundreds of thousands repeatedly took to the streets in the biggest challenge to Beijing since the British handed over the city to Chinese control in 1997 under a "one country, two systems" framework.
They sure hate people talking about all those students they murdered
This shows how far HongKong has gone backwards under China 🧐🌎🧐
If he lived in Australia, what would become of him?
We've got something similar in Australia. When you speak out against the Australian government, they ( Government Minister ( johnbarilaromp ) send nswpolice from the fixated persons unit around to arrest you and take you in for interrogation. auspol2021 auspol
Hong Kong has turned to sh*t. Very sad to see.
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