By AFP

Activists Joshua Wong (C) and Ivan Lam (L) board a police van at Lai Chi Kok Reception Centre in Hong Kong on December 2, 2020, before going to court to be sentenced over a protest which took place outside the police headquarters in 2019. (Photo by Anthony WALLACE / AFP)

Leading Hong Kong dissident Joshua Wong was jailed alongside two other young activists on Wednesday for taking part in last year’s huge democracy protests as the crackdown on Beijing’s critics gathers pace.

Wong, 24, was prosecuted alongside fellow activists Ivan Lam and Agnes Chow over a rally last summer outside the police headquarters.

“The days ahead will be tough but we will hang in there,” Wong shouted as he was led away.

The three — some of the city’s most visible critics of Beijing’s rule — pleaded guilty to various charges including inciting an unlawful assembly.

“The defendants called on protesters to besiege the headquarters and chanted slogans that undermine the police force,” Magistrate Wong Sze-lai said as she sentenced Wong to 13.5 months, Chow to 10 months and Lam to seven months in jail.

“Immediate imprisonment is the only appropriate option,” she added.

Chow, 23, burst into tears when the sentence was readout.

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