Trio of Occupy Central student leaders charged over protest

[Scorpion]

Trio of Occupy Central student leaders charged over protest that sparked 79-day movement

PUBLISHED : Thursday, 27 August, 2015, 11:32am
UPDATED : Thursday, 27 August, 2015, 7:32pm

Tony Cheung
[email protected]

Joshua Wong, Nathan Law and Alex Chow arrive at police headquarters in Wan Chai on Thursday. Photo: Sam Tsang

Three student leaders of last year’s Occupy protests in Hong Kong were charged by police today for their roles in a protest last year at government headquarters in the days leading up to the start of the movement.

Scholarism leader Joshua Wong Chi-fung, Federation of Students secretary general Nathan Law Kwun-Chung and his predecessor Alex Chow Yong-kang attended police headquarters in Wan Chai this morning to accept the charges.

Wong said he was charged with taking part and inciting others to take part in an unlawful assembly. Chow said he was charged for taking part in an unlawful assembly while Law was charged for inciting others to take part in it.

The trio were among a group of students who broke into the forecourt of government headquarters in Admiralty on September 26 last year.

The break in came after students staged a class boycott for several days outside the building in protest against Beijing’s stringent framework on political reform. The break in triggered the 79-day Occupy protests two days later.

Speaking before entering police headquarters this morning, Wong said: “The break in was the best decision I made in the last four years.”

The trio are due in court on Wednesday, September 2. Photo: Sam Tsang

Referring to the forecourt of the government headquarters, Wong said previous protests had been held there without incident.

“‘Civic Square’ had been a place where we gathered freely to protest against the national education curriculum and the free television licence decision. We were only trying to get into that place ... So this is a political prosecution,” he added.

Wong declined to say whether he would plead guilty, but Law dropped a strong hint that he would not.

“We are jumping into this procedure today to expose [the injustice] in it. When the law is used to suppress the people, we will not bow down ... and show remorse or apologise just to get a milder penalty,” Law said.

The activists will attend court on Wednesday.

Wong’s lawyer Michael Vidler said he is considering asking the court to end the legal proceeding permanently because it was wrong to prosecute 11 months after the incident.

About 100 activists, including pan-democrat lawmakers, gathered outside police headquarters to show their support for the trio.