{The activists charged for their role in the Umbrella Movement have criticised the case as an attack on free speech.}<\/p>\n
Nine pro-democracy Hong Kong activists appeared in court on Thursday for their role in the 2014 Umbrella Movement mass protests. They\u2019ve criticised the case as a form of political persecution.<\/p>\n
The group of campaigners, including students and lawmakers, were charged the day after pro-Beijing leader Carrie Lam was selected as city leader by a committee skewed towards the mainland camp.<\/p>\n
The case comes as fears grow that semi-autonomous Hong Kong’s freedoms are increasingly under threat from Chinese authorities.<\/p>\n
It also precedes an expected visit by China’s President Xi Jinping in July to mark the 20th anniversary of the handover of Hong Kong to China by Britain in 1997.<\/p>\n
The nine activists, ranging from 22 to 73-years-old, were charged with either conspiring to cause public nuisance or inciting others to do so in relation to the 2014 protests, which called for fully free leadership elections.<\/p>\n
The case was adjourned to May 25 after a brief hearing in magistrates’ court, during which the defence requested a High Court jury trial so that the public could participate in the decision.<\/p>\n
The defendants could face up to seven years in prison. They have yet to enter a plea.<\/p>\n
Dozens of Beijing supporters and pro-democracy protestors faced off outside the court, yelling profanities at each other, before the nine defendants were due to emerge.<\/p>\n
Some pro-China supporters slapped a picture of activist Benny Tai Yiu-ting with a pink plastic slipper, mimicking a local custom practised by some residents where a shoe is used to beat an image of an enemy.<\/p>\n
The 2014 uprising saw hundreds of thousands of people take to the streets to protest against Beijing’s insistence that Hong Kong’s leader – the chief executive – must be vetted by a 1,200-person committee before facing a public vote.<\/p>\n
Speaking outside court, movement leader Benny Tai Yiu-ting told reporters the activists would not give up on the fight for democracy in Hong Kong. <\/p>\n
“I believe our society is steeped with the spirit of civil disobedience,” said Tai, co-founder of Occupy Central, one of the groups behind the 2014 Umbrella Movement rallies.<\/p>\n
“We won’t give up until Hong Kong has real democracy and real universal suffrage,” he added.<\/p>\n
Rights group Amnesty International condemned the charges, saying the case showed Hong Kong’s freedom of expression and right to peaceful assembly was “under a sustained attack”.<\/p>\n
New leader Lam has promised to try to unify divided Hong Kong, but opponents said the court case immediately undermined that pledge.<\/p>\n
Source:Al Jazeera<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
{The activists charged for their role in the Umbrella Movement have criticised the case as an attack on free speech.} Nine pro-democracy Hong Kong activists appeared in court on Thursday for their role in the 2014 Umbrella Movement mass protests. They\u2019ve criticised the case as a form of political persecution. The group of campaigners, including […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[101],"byline":[160],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-33568","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-internationl","byline-theophile-niyitegeka"],"bylines":[{"id":160,"name":"Th\u00e9ophile Niyitegeka","slug":"theophile-niyitegeka","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":3}],"contributors":[{"id":160,"name":"Th\u00e9ophile Niyitegeka","slug":"theophile-niyitegeka","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":3}],"featured_image":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33568","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33568"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33568\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33568"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33568"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33568"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=33568"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=33568"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}