Hong Kong democracy activist Joshua Wong walked free from prison on Monday (June 17) after serving nearly five weeks for contempt of court, pledging to join a mass protest movement demanding that Hong Kong’s Beijing-backed leader Carrie Lam steps down. His release comes a day after organisers said two million people took part in a protest march in the heart of the city against a controversial extradition Bill and called on Mrs Lam to quit. Police said the figure was 338,000 at the peak of the protest. “I will join to fight against this evil law,” said Mr Wong, 22, who was one of the leaders of the 2014 “Umbrella” pro-democracy protests that blocked major roads in the city for 79 days.
“I believe this is the time for her, Carrie Lam the liar, to step down.”
Before he was jailed, both Mr Wong and his supporters had called on the Hong Kong government to scrap the extradition proposal which would have allowed one-off extraditions with jurisdictions with whom Hong Kong does not have a permanent agreement, including mainland China. Critics fear that the extradition Bill would be used to target opposition figures and activists and subject them to Beijing’s opaque legal process.
Hong Kong ‘Umbrella movement’ protest leader Joshua Wong released from prison
