Hong Kong activists defiant in face of possible jail term

A defiant Joshua Wong, who became the face of Hong Kong's huge Umbrella Movement, said yesterday he had no regrets as he prepared for a possible prison sentence for his leading role in the mass pro-democracy protests.

But the student activist said he felt "guilty and sorry" for what he described as the burden he had put upon his family, a day ahead of a court ruling that could see him and two other prominent young activists jailed.

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Wong and other pro-democracy supporters say the case is more proof that Beijing is tightening its grip on semi-autonomous Hong Kong, which enjoys much greater freedoms than on the mainland.

Those rights are guaranteed in the agreement made when Britain handed Hong Kong back to China in 1997, but there are growing concerns Beijing is trampling the deal.

"I expect to pay the price, to be sent to prison," university student Wong, 20, told AFP.

"However, I have no regret at all. What we have done already proves that Hong Kong people will continue to show determination in the frontline against authoritarian rule."

Umbrella Movement leaders Wong, Nathan Law and Alex Chow were found guilty last year on unlawful assembly charges for storming a government forecourt as part of an anti-Beijing protest in 2014.

That protest sparked the months-long rallies which brought parts of Hong Kong to a standstill calling for fully free leadership elections, an unprecedented rebuke to Beijing.

Wong and Law received community sentences and Chow a three-week suspended sentence at magistrates' court last August.