Hong Kong to sentence activist Joshua Wong in September

HONG KONG, July 7 — Prominent Hong Kong pro-democracy activist Joshua Wong — already serving a years-long jail term for subversion — will be sentenced in September in a separate national security case, according to a court website.

The 29-year-old Wong, a former student leader, was charged last year under the city’s Beijing-imposed national security law in a move slammed by rights groups.

He is already serving a nearly five-year sentence for subversion and is one of the most recognisable faces of Hong Kong’s now-quashed democracy movement.

The Hong Kong judiciary website on Tuesday showed that a plea and sentence is scheduled for September 2.

Wong sprang to prominence during student-led protests more than a decade ago and was also involved in the huge and sometimes violent democracy rallies in 2019 that triggered the imposition of the national security law.

Prosecutors said Wong, self-exiled activist Nathan Law, and others asked foreign entities to seriously disrupt the formulation and implementation of laws or policies in Hong Kong and China, according to a June 2025 charge seen by AFP.

The offence may be punishable by life imprisonment if found to be of a “serious nature”. — AFP