Hong Kong activist Joshua Wong sentenced to 10 extra years in jail

World

By Linda Ikeji
5 November 2026, 12:18 pm

Prominent Hong Kong activist Joshua Wong has been sentenced to 10 extra years in jail below a Beijing-imposed nationwide safety legislation.

Back in 2025, Wong was charged with conspiracy to collude with overseas forces to hazard nationwide safety, and he pleaded responsible to the offense earlier this 12 months.

The 30-year-old is already serving a four-year, eight-month jail time period for the town’s largest nationwide safety case linked to an unofficial main.

Before being prosecuted within the newest case, Wong had been anticipated to be freed in January 2027.

Judge William Tam dominated that Wong’s offense was of a grave nature and that he was a mastermind of the conspiracy.

Tam stated Wong and fellow activist Nathan Law continued to conspire collectively to have direct contact and collude with senior officers or establishments of overseas governments, or different exterior components, and to name for his or her adversarial interference towards China and Hong Kong.

The choose pointed to the US revocation of the town’s totally different remedy as a particular administrative area and the sanctions towards Chinese and Hong Kong officers, saying these have been the sort of sanctions or hostile measures Wong and Law had known as for.

“The punishment must fit the gravity of the crime committed,” he wrote. “It is also necessary for this court to express the community’s abhorrence of the defendant’s scheme and acts together with others to collude with foreign forces…and to serve the imperative of general deterrence.”

Tam stated he thought-about a 13-year jail sentence as a place to begin however decreased it due to Wong’s responsible plea and mitigation.

Tam stated Wong would serve the remaining two months of the sentence for his first nationwide safety conviction concurrently with the brand new sentence.

In an announcement obtained by The Associated Press, Wong wrote in jail that his political participation was by no means pushed by hatred and he bears no resentment towards the Chinese or Hong Kong governments, including that he by no means advocated Hong Kong independence.

He stated he thought he was performing throughout the legislation, however solely later realized his judgment was flawed.

He stated throughout his practically six years in jail, he enrolled in college programs and skim lots of of books.

He stated he devoted himself to turning into a extra accountable and compassionate particular person, and he hoped he’d be capable to look again on this era as a trial that strengthened him.