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Hong Kong student activist Tony Chung gets four months’ jail for defiling China’s flag, joining illegal protest
- Magistrate notes Tony Chung openly snatched the flag from members of a pro-establishment group, before throwing it in the air for everybody to see
- Court hears Chung, 19, is suffering from adjustment disorder and insomnia after being charged and remanded over separate national security case
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Student activist Tony Chung Hon-lam has been jailed for four months for defiling the national flag and taking part in an unlawful protest in Hong Kong last year.
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Chung was sentenced at West Kowloon Court on Tuesday, after the magistrate was told the 19-year-old suffered from adjustment disorder and insomnia since being charged and remanded in custody for allegedly breaking the national security law in a separate case.
Magistrate Peony Wong Nga-yan earlier this month ruled that Chung, who founded the now-defunct Studentlocalism group, had publicly undermined the dignity of the national flag by tugging at it with two unidentified people during a protest against the now-abandoned extradition bill outside the legislature, breaking its pole in the process, then throwing it into the air.
At Tuesday’s hearing, Chung’s defence counsel urged the court to hand down only a short prison term, after the Correctional Services Department suggested correctional training was not suitable for the defendant.
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The department noted Chung had violated institutional rules while remanded at Pik Uk Prison in Sai Kung by taking away a book left behind by an inmate who had already been released. Chung was placed in solitary confinement for three days over the breach.
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