Nine pro-democracy campaigners have been convicted over their leadership of “umbrella movement” rallies in Hong Kong in 2014, in a controversial verdict that has prompted renewed alarm about the city’s political freedom.

Protest leaders including the sociology professor Chan Kin-man, 60, the law professor Benny Tai, 54, and the Baptist minister the Rev Chu Yiu-ming, 75, were among those found guilty on rarely used colonial-era public nuisance charges for their roles in the 2014 protests calling for free elections, the largest civil disobedience movement in the city’s history.

All three were charged with one count of conspiracy to cause public nuisance. Tai and Chan were also convicted of inciting others to cause public nuisance. The court did not immediately announce sentences for the charges, which each carry a maximum of seven years in prison.

The other defendants, including the pro-democracy politicians Tanya Chan and Shiu Ka-chun, the former student leaders Eason Chung and Tommy Cheung, and the activist Raphael Wong, were convicted of inciting others to cause a public nuisance as well as inciting others to incite. One former lawmaker, Lee Wing-tat, was found guilty of incitement to incite others to create public nuisance.

In a summary of the judgment, Justice Johnny Chan said civil disobedience was not a defence to a criminal charge. Prosecutors argued that the protests, which shut down parts of the city for almost three months, calling for the rights of Hong Kong residents to elect their own leader, had caused “unreasonable” disruptions to public order.
 

The Guardian