Hong Kong: High Court Sentences Activist Joshua Wong to 10 Years in Prison on National Security Charge After Guilty Plea
A Hong Kong High Court on November 5 sentenced activist Joshua Wong, 30, to 10 years in prison for conspiring to collude with foreign forces under the city's national security law. Wong, who became the international face of Hong Kong's democracy movement as a teenager, pleaded guilty to the charge in September.
Prosecutors accused Wong of conspiring with self-exiled activist Nathan Law and others in 2020 to request that foreign countries, institutions, organisations or individuals impose sanctions or blockades, or engage in other hostile activities, against the governments of Hong Kong and China. The presiding judge, Tam Yiu-ho, set a starting point of 13 years and took Wong's guilty plea into consideration before imposing the 10-year sentence. The national security law sets prison terms of three to 10 years for foreign collusion, or 10 years to life for offences deemed to be of a grave nature.
Wong has been in custody since November 2020 and is already serving four years and eight months after pleading guilty in a landmark subversion trial in 2024; he had been due for release in January. Speaking after the sentence, Hong Kong Chief Executive John Lee said Wong and Law committed extremely serious offences which undermined national sovereignty, security and development interests. Human Rights Watch criticised the sentence as harsh and called for Wong's release.
Source: 香港高等法院
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 照片：香港高等法院大楼，LN9267 摄，Wikimedia Commons，CC BY-SA 4.0 授权 / Photo: The Hong Kong High Court building, by LN9267, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
