Junius Ho Says Occupy Leaders Showed No Remorse

Pro-Beijing lawmaker Junius Ho has called for "much heavier" sentences for the nine Occupy movement leaders, accusing them of showing "no remorse" at all.

In an RTHK public forum on Sunday, Ho said that expressing political views didn't mean people could break the law.

Ho added that the 79-day sit-in protest in 2014 had "paralysed" Central district.

Four prominent leaders were jailed on Wednesday over their role in the 2014 protest.

Another four, including speaker Reverend Chu Yiu-ming, were given non-custodial sentences. Lawmaker Tanya Chan is still awaiting sentencing after requesting time for treatment on a brain tumour.

Ho said this was "too lenient" and urged the Department of Justice to appeal for a starting point of 36 months or more.

However, Joshua Wong, a student activist who was jailed for his role in Occupy in a separate case, said the three public nuisance charges pressed on the leaders were "outdated" colonial laws.

He said the protesters had been non-violent during the movement, adding that the judge had set a strict and narrow standard for civil disobedience:

Earlier Labour Party lawmaker Fernando Cheung also criticised the punishments handed down.

Cheung said none of the jailed Occupy leaders should have gone to prison for the public nuisance offences for which they were convicted.

Speaking on RTHK's Letter to Hong Kong, Cheung said they would have pleaded guilty to charges of unauthorised assembly or resisting police.

"They were ready to accept the punishment of such offences. But to charge them with such vague and outdated offences in order to impose a much heavier punishment is clearly a political persecution," he said.

Last updated: 2019-04-28 HKT 20:31