Court finally releases English version of judgment that jailed Hong Kong activists Joshua Wong, Nathan Law and Alex Chow
The ruling had hitherto only been available in Chinese, and not in the city’s other official language
A Hong Kong court has released the English version of the judgment that sent three prominent democracy activists to prison, a full two weeks after judges handed down the controversial sentences.
The new document lays out the judges’ reasoning as they gave Joshua Wong Chi-fung, Nathan Law Kwun-chung and Alex Chow Yong-kang between six and eight months in jail, and records one of the judges’ warning that the trio’s actions were symptoms of “an unhealthy wind blowing” in the city.
The ruling had until this week only been available in Chinese, and not in the bilingual city’s other official language, English.
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The sentences sparked worries and debate over the city’s judicial independence, because the higher court overturned a lower court’s more lenient sentences after government lawyers pushed for harsher punishments. The new translation may help with that debate; lawyers in the city have long called on the public to focus on the reasoning in judgments before criticising judges.
Read the full judgment here
