Hong Kong 47: activist Joshua Wong asks for no more than 10 years’ jail for ‘active’ role in plot
- Joshua Wong, 27, appears in court with five other opposition figures to seek lighter sentences for their roles in scheme tied to unofficial primary election
Former student leader Wong, 27, appeared in West Kowloon Court alongside five other opposition figures to ask for lighter sentences for their roles in what was ruled in the city’s largest national security trial to be a conspiracy to subvert state power through the abuse of lawmakers’ powers.
Wong’s counsel, Marco Li Kwok-wai, said his client could rightly be categorised as an “active participant” in the scheme, which merited three to 10 years in jail under the Beijing-imposed national security law’s three-tier sentencing system.
The court heard Wong, who aligned himself with the city’s “resistance camp”, had several times called for international intervention during his primary election campaign and suggested the opposition’s dominance in the legislature could be used to counter the Chinese Communist Party.
