FILE PHOTO: Pro-democracy activists Joshua Wong (left) and Tiffany Yuen arrive at West Kowloon Magistrates’s Courts to face charges related to an illegal vigil assembly commemorating the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown, in Hong Kong, China November 3, 2020. REUTERS/Tyrone Siu
November 26, 2020
BERLIN (Reuters) – Hong Kong pro-democracy activist Joshua Wong told a German newspaper he was doing well despite being held in solitary confinement and having trouble sleeping because of bright lights after he was remanded in custody this week.
Wong, who on Monday pleaded guilty to charges of organising and inciting an unauthorised assembly near police headquarters in last year’s anti-government protests, also said he does not expect a fair trial on Dec. 2.
Facing a maximum three-year jail term, Wong told Die Welt daily he was not allowed to leave his solitary cell or meet other prisoners and was forbidden to do sport.
“Because the light in the cell burns for 24 hours, it is difficult for me to sleep,” Wong told the paper in written answers from prison.
“I have to cover my eyes with protective face masks to fall asleep,” he wrote, adding he does not expect a fair trial and that he felt like a dissident in China.
“I have long since lost confidence in this legal system,” he wrote, adding, however, that if he and other activists were convicted, the democracy movement would continue.
“I want to tell the world that the movement in Hong Kong will not come to a halt just because Agnes Chow, Ivan Lam and I are in prison,” he said, adding that he saw China as a threat to world freedom.
“Universities, journalists and companies – everyone is forced to adhere to Chinese standards,” said Wong.
(Reporting by Madeline Chambers; Editing by Bernadette Baum)
