Read the Hong Kong Court of Appeal’s ruling on Joshua Wong, Nathan Law and Alex Chow, jailed for 2014 protest

The jailing of three Hong Kong political activists on Thursday has drawn fire from the city’s pro-democracy camp, but been lauded in pro-establishment circles. It has also provoked questions on judicial independence, which were challenged by legal professional bodies and the Secretary for Justice Rimsky Yuen Kwok-keung.

Joshua Wong Chi-fung, Nathan Law Kwun-chung and Alex Chow Yong-kang were jailed for six to eight months for their parts in clashes at the government headquarters in Admiralty, soon before the pro-democracy Occupy protests of 2014. Wong and Chow were found guilty of unlawful assembly, and Law of inciting others to take part in an unlawful assembly. Law and Wong at first got community service, while Chow was given a suspended jail term. On Thursday the Court of Appeal sent them to prison, finding the earlier punishments insufficient.

Below, translated into English, are highlights of the court’s 64-page ruling, which was only made available in Chinese.

What happened?

On September 26, 2014, respondents from different groups attended a rally in the area in front of the government headquarters, next to Tim Mei Avenue. They were given a notice of no objection from police before the rally, and the notice was valid until 10 o’clock that night.

On the same day, the two gates of the fence of the area in front of the Central Government Offices were closed for security reasons. When the incident happened, security guards were on duty in front of and behind the gates. There were also [metal] barriers in front of the gates.

The rally finished at about 10.20pm. When the participants began to leave, Wong ran onto the podium and used the radio system to call on them to stay and get into the area in front of the Central Government Office. Then Wong passed his role as the host of the rally to Law, while he himself ran to the area in front of the Central Government Offices.