HONG KONG (Reuters) – Hong Kong activist Edward Leung, known for being the first to use the slogan “Free Hong Kong. The Revolution of our times” declared illegal under the new national security law, was released from prison on Wednesday.
Edward Leung used this slogan for his campaign in the 2016 legislative elections, from which he was then excluded for old calls for independence.
A 24-year-old former waiter from Hong Kong was sentenced in July to nine years in prison for “terrorism” and “incitement to secession” after being accused of driving a motorcycle into three riot police in 2020 while waving a flag on which you could read this slogan.
Edward Leung, 30, was jailed in 2018 for his role in a 2016 protest, which turned into a riot and in which around 130 people were injured.
The activist was the leader of the group Hong Kong Indigenous, a political organization – now defunct – which organized demonstrations against China and advocated “localism”, that is to say the promotion of a local Hong Kong identity. Kong rather than a Chinese identity.
(Report Jessie Pang and Joyce Zhou; French version Camille Raynaud)
by Jessie Pang and Joyce Zhou