Hong Kong 'Umbrella Movement' student leaders found guilty
It's a dark day for the student leaders of the Hong Kong pro-democracy protests in 2014 that came to be known as the "Umbrella Movement."
On Thursday, a court convicted Joshua Wong, Nathan Law and Alex Chow for unlawful assembly, for their role in starting the protests.
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The convictions will only add to Hong Kong residents' fears of the mainland Chinese government coming down on civil liberties the former British colony used to enjoy.
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In 2014, the trio led tens of thousands of demonstrators on a 79-day blockade, sitting in business districts in the busy port city. With major roads blocked, Hong Kong's traffic and retail industries grounded to a halt, and things took a turn for violence when police eventually intervened after two months with tear gas and batons.
Chow is 25 and Law is 23. Joshua Wong, at 19, is the youngest of the three, and became the face of the protests as his student activist group, Scholarism, started rallies and petitions that first attracted attention to their cause.
On Friday, he posted a video to his nearly 300,000 followers on Facebook, capturing the three addressing supporters outside the court after the verdict:
He spoke in Cantonese, saying: "No matter what is the penalty or the price that we need to pay, we will still continue to fight against the suppression from the government and also we know that facing the largest Communist regime in the world, it is a long term battle for us to fight for democracy."
They have been freed on bail, and are due to return to court for sentencing in mid-August. It's not clear yet whether they face jail time.
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Victoria Ho is Mashable's Asia Editor, based in Singapore. She previously reported on news and tech at The Business Times, TechCrunch and ZDNet. When she isn't writing, she's making music with her band
