By Jessie Pang and Marcus Lum
HONG KONG(Reuters) – A Hong Kong court jailed pro-democracy activist Owen Chow for three days on Wednesday and levied a fine on his solicitor, Phyllis Woo, for taking a document out of prison without authorisation.
Chow is one of 14 people convicted of conspiracy to commit subversion in a landmark national security case in May that drew international criticism and could see him jailed for life, but he awaits sentencing, with that case in the mitigation stage.
He and Woo, 31, were convicted on the unauthorised document charge in July, after having pleaded not guilty. Chow’s sentence is to be added to the other jail time he faces, while Woo was ordered to pay a fine of HK$1,800 ($231).
Chow’s defence lawyer, Jeffrey Tam, said he would appeal against the conviction and sentence.
Chow is currently serving a jail term of more than five years after having being found guilty of occupying the city’s legislature during mass pro-democracy protests in 2019.
During a legal visit at the Lai Chi Kok Reception Center on May 2 last year, he gave Woo the “unauthorised” complaint form at the centre of the case.
Chow’s complaint to Hong Kong’s ombudsman related to two books on Chinese Buddhism that family members tried to give him in prison but which were banned by the Correctional Services Department (CSD).
Had the complaint form been sent by the proper route following a security check, Principal Magistrate Ivy Chui said, she believed it would have gone smoothly from the prison to the ombudsman, an administration watchdog.
Chui described Chow’s attempt to bypass the security check as “reckless and foolish”. She took into consideration Woo’s relatively short experience as a solicitor and her clean criminal record in handing down the fine.
During the trial, the prosecution played closed-circuit television images of the visit, saying Chow “secretly” gave the complaint form to Woo after a prison officer left the room.
“This case is just the tip of the iceberg where correctional staff obstruct the exercise of the rights of prisoners,” Chow wrote in a letter of mitigation.
Several books he sought had been banned by the CSD for “ridiculous” reasons over the past three years, he added.
His cell was raided seven times after he insisted on filing a complaint, Chow said, and he was punished for having in his possession a Portuguese egg tart “without permission”, although the dessert had been part of a breakfast interrupted by a raid.
Chow was placed in solitary confinement, told to engage in sports and take showers alone, while nearby inmates were all moved away, he added.
“If the people in power want the society to be called … progressive, they must take responsibility, starting with facing the voices of vulnerable communities.”
(Reporting by Jessie Pang and Marcus Lum; Editing by James Pomfret and Clarence Fernandez)
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