‘Grandma Wong’ of Hong Kong is jailed for democratic protests

• Alexandra Wong, 66, was a fixture of Hong Kong’s pro-democracy protests three years ago.
• On Wednesday, she was incarcerated for unlawful assembly.
• A court sentenced her to eight months in jail because of the “scale and disturbance to social order” of the protests.

HONG KONG: An elderly woman who became a fixture of Hong Kong democratic protests was incarcerated for unlawful assembly on Wednesday, a day after a court incarcerated a terminally ill activist of the same age.

Three years ago, Alexandra Wong, 66, was a regular protester, holding a British Union Jack banner.

Prosecutors accused her of participating in two unlawful gatherings on August 11 and yelling “offensive words.” They said her flag-waving and shouting encouraged an illegal assembly.

Wong was sentenced to eight months because of the “scale and disturbance to social order” of the protests.

One of the main charges against people who took part in Hong Kong’s large and sometimes violent 2019 democracy rallies is an unlawful assembly.

More than 2,800 people have been charged with crimes related to protests, and Hong Kong’s 2020 Security Law makes it illegal to disagree with the government.

Wong pleaded not guilty earlier this year but changed her plea on Wednesday.

From the dock, Wong called Hong Kong’s government an “authoritarian dictatorship.”

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She also repeated an earlier claim that she was detained by Chinese security officials for 14 months and compelled to deliver written and video confessions.

Wong vanished from the mid-2019 protests.

She later said she was intercepted in Shenzhen, a mainland city near Hong Kong.

She claimed she was detained on the mainland, taken on a “patriotic trip,” and kept under de facto house arrest until she could return to Hong Kong.

In April, Wong was sentenced to six days in jail with an 18-month suspended sentence for obstructing a police officer.

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