Hong Kong Activist Gets 9 Years in Prison
Voice of America
The first person convicted under Hong Kong’s national security law has been sentenced to nine years in prison after being found guilty of terrorism and secession in a watershed ruling that could act as a benchmark for the city’s revamped judicial setting.
Leon Tong Ying-kit, a former waiter at a restaurant, was sentenced on Friday following his conviction Tuesday after a 15-day trial. The 24-year-old was found guilty of driving his motorcycle into police officers during a street protest in July of 2020 while carrying a flag saying, “Liberate Hong Kong, revolution of the times.” Ina break with past practice, the case was heard by three specially enlisted judges with no jury. Eric Yan-ho Lai, a Hong Kong Fellow at Georgetown University, pointed out that according to the text of the national security law, acts of secession deemed to be serious would face a jail sentence of not less than five years. A terrorism act that was deemed serious would warrant a sentence that exceeds 10 years. The law analyst said Tong’s sentencing indicates that the three-judge panel views secessionist acts, such as bearing a flag in a public scene, as a serious crime in Hong Kong.This photo provided by the Prefecture Maritime du Nord et de la Manche shows migrants continuing their journey to Britain off the northern coast of France, April 23, 2024. British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak speaks at a press conference at Downing Street in London, April 22, 2024. Sunak pledged that the country’s first deportation flights to Rwanda could leave in 10-12 weeks.
Women in rural Malawi pick vegetables in Chikwawa district. Statistics show that more than 20% of Malawi's 19.6 million people live in extreme poverty. With 20% of people in Malawi living in extreme poverty, UNICEF says parents and caregivers in rural areas need assistance to care for their children. These children are pictured in Malawi's Chikwawa district.
FILE - Visitors walk past a model of India's Brahmos supersonic cruise missile displayed at the Defence Expo 2022 in Gandhinagar on Oct. 18, 2022. South China Sea territorial claims India’s Foreign Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar shakes hands with Philippines’ Secretary of Foreign Affairs Enrique Manalo after a joint press conference at the Sofitel Hotel in Manila, March 26, 2024. (Jam Sta Rosa/Pool via Reuters)