Hong Kong Activist Joshua Wong Held in Custody After Guilty Plea in Protest Case

Prominent Hong Kong activist Joshua Wong was taken into custody on Monday after pleading guilty to inciting and organizing an unauthorized assembly for his part in a dramatic siege of police headquarters last year during the city’s mass protests. The activist, however, entered a not guilty plea to the charge of knowingly taking part in an unauthorized assembly, according to a statement, saying the prosecution had offered no evidence for the last charge. He’s set to be sentenced on Dec. 2, RTHK reported, adding that he faces a maximum punishment of three years in jail. In a Twitter message marked as being sent while he was in custody, Wong said his current predicament was less deserving of attention than the fate of a dozen Hong Kong activists who’ve been detained by mainland Chinese authorities after fleeing the city for Taiwan by boat. The former leader of Hong Kong’s 2014 Umbrella movement protests was the subject of the Netflix documentary “Joshua: Teenager vs. Superpower.”