Hong Kong activist Joshua Wong jailed for further 10 months over June 4 assembly

Hong Kong democracy activist Joshua Wong will face an additional 10 months in jail for participating in an unauthorised assembly on June 4 last year to commemorate the 1989 crackdown on protesters in and around Beijing’s Tiananmen Square.

It was the first time the vigil was banned in the global financial hub, with police citing coronavirus restrictions on group gatherings, as they did for all demonstrations last year. This year’s protest is expected to face a similar fate.

Still, tens of thousands of people lit candles across the city in what was largely a peaceful event last June, bar a brief skirmish with riot police in one neighbourhood.

Commemorations of the Tiananmen crackdown are banned in mainland China, but Hong Kong traditionally held the largest vigils globally every year, having been promised certain freedoms when it returned to Chinese rule in 1997, including rights of expression and assembly.

SourceĀ  https://www.reuters.com/world/china/hong-kong-activist-joshua-wong-jailed-further-10-months-over-june-4-assembly-2021-05-06/