Joshua Wong, the most public face of Hong Kong’s umbrella movement demonstrations, has avoided a jail term for his role in a protest that helped launch the unprecedented 79-day political convulsion. At the time Amnesty International denounced the verdicts as “a chilling warning for freedom of expression and peaceful assembly” in Hong Kong. The eastern magistrate’s court ordered Wong and Law to perform 80 and 120 hours of community service respectively, according to the Hong Kong Free Press website. Human Rights Watch called for the sentences to be quashed by Hong Kong’s government. “In sentencing these students, Hong Kong authorities’ behaviour increasingly resembles that of their counterparts in Beijing,” said Sophie Richardson, the group’s China director.

Source: The Guardian August 15, 2016 03:02 UTC