Post by w on Jan 1, 2013 0:46:05 GMT -5
Hong Kong activist may face jail over anti-Hu demo
A Hong Kong pro-democracy activist appeared in court on Monday and could face jail after he allegedly threw a t-shirt at Chinese President Hu Jintao's motorcade earlier this year.
Vice chairman of pro-democracy party, League of Social Democrats, Avery Ng speaks to the media as a supporter displays a t-shirt showing Chinese dissident Li Wangyang before his court appearance in Hong Kong on December 24, 2012.
Avery Ng from the radical League of Social Democrats party was charged with causing public nuisance and was bailed pending a hearing in February next year after pleading not guilty.
Ng, who is vice-chairman of the party, faces up to two years in jail if found guilty of the offence, according to the South China Morning Post newspaper.
"This is an abuse of the judiciary system," Ng told AFP after the hearing at a magistrate's court, labelling the case a "political persecution".
He said his case showed that Hong Kong's fundamental liberties, guaranteed under the 'one country, two systems' governing model, were threatened.
"This is an erosion of our freedoms and right to protest," Ng said.
Ng, 35, was arrested on Saturday for allegedly throwing a t-shirt bearing the picture of late Chinese dissident Li Wangyang at Hu's motorcade from a footbridge near Hong Kong's airport on June 29.
Hu was in Hong Kong to mark the 15th anniversary of Chinese annexation of Hong Kong and to swear in Hong Kong's new Beijing-appointed leader Leung Chun-ying, at a time when anti-Beijing sentiment surged to a new high.
Police used pepper spray to disperse hundreds of anti-Hu protesters during his three-day visit, while 400,000 people took to the streets to demonstrate against Beijing's meddling in local affairs in a separate rally on July 1.
A Hong Kong Chinese-language newspaper journalist was briefly detained by police after he asked Hu a question about the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown during the visit.
A Hong Kong pro-democracy activist appeared in court on Monday and could face jail after he allegedly threw a t-shirt at Chinese President Hu Jintao's motorcade earlier this year.
Vice chairman of pro-democracy party, League of Social Democrats, Avery Ng speaks to the media as a supporter displays a t-shirt showing Chinese dissident Li Wangyang before his court appearance in Hong Kong on December 24, 2012.
Avery Ng from the radical League of Social Democrats party was charged with causing public nuisance and was bailed pending a hearing in February next year after pleading not guilty.
Ng, who is vice-chairman of the party, faces up to two years in jail if found guilty of the offence, according to the South China Morning Post newspaper.
"This is an abuse of the judiciary system," Ng told AFP after the hearing at a magistrate's court, labelling the case a "political persecution".
He said his case showed that Hong Kong's fundamental liberties, guaranteed under the 'one country, two systems' governing model, were threatened.
"This is an erosion of our freedoms and right to protest," Ng said.
Ng, 35, was arrested on Saturday for allegedly throwing a t-shirt bearing the picture of late Chinese dissident Li Wangyang at Hu's motorcade from a footbridge near Hong Kong's airport on June 29.
Hu was in Hong Kong to mark the 15th anniversary of Chinese annexation of Hong Kong and to swear in Hong Kong's new Beijing-appointed leader Leung Chun-ying, at a time when anti-Beijing sentiment surged to a new high.
Police used pepper spray to disperse hundreds of anti-Hu protesters during his three-day visit, while 400,000 people took to the streets to demonstrate against Beijing's meddling in local affairs in a separate rally on July 1.
A Hong Kong Chinese-language newspaper journalist was briefly detained by police after he asked Hu a question about the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown during the visit.