HONG KONG: Joshua Wong and two other young leaders of Hong Kong’s huge Umbrella Movement rallies were jailed Thursday for their role in the 2014 pro-democracy protests, dealing a fresh blow to the campaign for political reform. The sentences handed down by the city’s Court of Appeal came as fears grow that Beijing is tightening its grip on the semi-autonomous city and that rule of law is being compromised. Wong, Nathan Law and Alex Chow were given terms of six months, eight months and seven months respectively after the court upped their previous non-custodial sentences. “The court has a responsibility to send out a clear message to society, that in activities such as rallies, marches and protests, when rights are freely exercised, participants must abide by the law,” the judgement said. Anyone who receives a jail term of more than three months is barred from running for Hong Kong’s partially directly elected parliament for five years. Wong turns 21 in October which would have made him eligible to run for lawmaker, something he had said he wanted to do. Published in Daily Times, August 18th 2017.