The student leaders of the Hong Kong Occupy protest, which was started in late September 2014, were prosecuted by the local authorities for criminal offences including illegal assembly, media reported Wednesday.
The leaders, Joshua Wong Chi-fung of Scholarism, along with Nathan Law Kwun-chung and Alex Chow of Hong Kong Federation of Students, who led the group that stormed the main government compound on September 26, 2014 and started the Occupy protest, have been prosecuted for two criminal offences – illegal assembly and inciting others to participate in illegal assembly, according to Radio Television Hong Kong (RTHK).
Five fellow activists were charged with obstructing police officers and assaulting police.
Wong said on his Facebook page on Tuesday that he received a police notice earlier this month, and confirmed that he was also charged with obstructing police officers during a protest outside the central government's liaison office in August 2014 and a trial will be held on August 28.
He is ordered to go to report to the police on August 27.
Despite being charged with several offences, Wong continued to call for pan-democratic activities as the first anniversary of the Occupy protest approaches.
Yuen Kwok-keung, Hong Kong's secretary for justice, said at a press event on Wednesday that the prosecution of the student leaders is not politically motivated and the authorities did not receive any political pressure.
Yuen explained that since the protest lasted nearly three months and many criminal offences took place during that period, police had to provide a lot of documents and information to the prosecution, which took time.
He added that the local judicial authorities have requested the court to provide details of some cases, suspecting that some punishments were too light. He said for example four protesters were previously prosecuted for vandalism and illegal assembly but only received community service orders which didn't have enough deterrent effect.
