Hong Kong activist Joshua Wong asks for a lesser sentence in landmark security case

HONG KONG (AP) — Prominent activist Joshua Wong asked for a lesser sentence in court Friday after he earlier pleaded guilty in Hong Kong’s biggest national security case.

Wong was one of 47 activists charged in 2021 under a Beijing-imposed national security law with conspiracy to commit subversion for their involvement in an unofficial primary. The activists were accused of attempting to paralyze Hong Kong’s government and topple the city’s leader by aiming to win a legislative majority and using it to block city budgets indiscriminately.

Wong and 44 others admitted their liability or were convicted by the court. They could be sentenced to life in prison, though those who pleaded guilty have a better chance of receiving shorter sentences. Their mass prosecution dealt a severe blow to the city’s once-thriving pro-democracy movement.

Wong waved at the public gallery after he walked into the courtroom. Former Democratic Party chair Wu Chi-wai, former pro-democracy lawmaker Jeremy Tam and activist Tam Tak-chi were among the five other activists who also appeared in court.

Wong’s lawyer Marco Li said his client should be considered an “active participant” because he neither organized nor assisted in the unofficial primary. The security law calls for active participants to face a jail term of between three to 10 years.

Li said Wong hoped that he could part with his past history and would be able to reform himself after serving his sentence. He suggested the judges offer his client a one-third reduction of sentence given his guilty plea.

Wong first became a household name in Hong Kong as a teenager in 2012 for leading protests against the implementation of national education in the city’s schools.

In 2014, he rose to fame as