Jailed Hong Kong activist Joshua Wong pleads guilty to charges stemming from 2019 mask ban protest
- Wong admits violating the city’s emergency mask ban and taking part in an unauthorised assembly on October 5, 2019, the same day the controversial regulation took effect
- His co-defendant, fellow activist Koo Sze-yiu, pleads not guilty to one count of taking part in the same unauthorised protest
The 24-year-old on Friday returned to court alongside veteran activist Koo Sze-yiu, 74, to face charges stemming from a Hong Kong Island rally on October 5, 2019, when hundreds of people marched from Causeway Bay to Central in protest against the mask ban, which came into effect that morning.
City leader Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor had invoked a colonial-era emergency law, on the grounds of public danger, to prohibit facial coverings at demonstrations in a bid to quell months of anti-government protests, sparked by the now-withdrawn extradition bill.
The young activist is currently serving a 13½-month prison term handed down last month for incitement and organising an unauthorised assembly over a 15-hour siege of police headquarters in Wan Chai that took place on June 21, 2019.
His latest case was previously put on hold pending the top court’s ruling on the legality of the mask ban.
Last month, the Court of Final Appeal ruled the ban was constitutionally valid – for all public assemblies, meetings and processions – because it was a proportionate measure, and necessary for dealing with the frequent violence that accompanied the anti-government protests.
