Two anti-government figures plead guilty to charges in Hong Kong
Two anti-government figures in Hong Kong have pleaded guilty to charges related to an illegal assembly during violent protests in the Chinese territory last year.
Au Nok-hin on Tuesday pleaded guilty to organizing and knowingly taking part in an unauthorized assembly in August 2019, and Leung Yiu-chung pleaded guilty to participating in an illegal assembly.
They will hear the verdict in March.
Seven other people, including media tycoon Jimmy Lai, pleaded not guilty, though.
Lai has been in custody since December and is scheduled for another court appearance on Thursday for his appeal against an earlier decision to deny him bail in relation to charges of colluding with foreign forces.
Hong Kong has been governed under the “one-country, two-system” model since the city, a former British colony, was returned to China in 1997.
The city was rocked by riots over a bill that would have reformed its extradition law in 2019. Violent individuals vandalized the city, destroying public and private property and attacking anyone deemed to be pro-government. Hong Kong dropped that bill, but the acts of violence continued.
Last year, the city enacted a new national security law, criminalizing sedition, secession, and subversion against the mainland.
Some opposition lawmakers openly called for Western intervention to stop the law from being enacted in the city and propagated in favor of secession from mainland China.
The United States actively supported the protest leaders and attempted to stir anti-China sentiments in the city.
Late last year, the administration of former US president Donald Trump imposed sanctions on a number of Chinese officials for what it claimed to be their role in Beijing’s disqualification of elected opposition legislators in Hong Kong.
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