Three student leaders of last year's pro-democracy Umbrella Movement in Hong Kong -- including the rail-thin teenager who at 17 became the face of the protests -- were charged Thursday over their roles in events that set off the huge rallies and sit-ins.
Joshua Wong, now 18, was charged with unlawful assembly and inciting others to take part in the assembly. If convicted, Wong, who co-founded a youth protest group called Scholarism, faces a maximum of five years in prison.
Alex Chow, a former leader of the Hong Kong Federation of Students, was charged with unlawful assembly. Nathan Law, the federation's current leader, was charged with incitement.
In September, they were among the students who boycotted classes to protest Beijing's framework for electing Hong Kong's next leader. They later broke into a fenced square in front of the Hong Kong government headquarters.
That act escalated into clashes with the police as more people gathered in support of the students and of another group of protesters, Occupy Central With Love and Peace, that had joined forces with the two student organizations. The protests spread and prompted sit-ins that shut down three major arteries of Hong Kong for 79 days.
The protesters objected to Beijing's ruling on how the semiautonomous Chinese territory would be allowed to elect its chief executive beginning in 2017.
China's top legislative body, the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, had agreed to a popular vote but required that all candidates be vetted by a nominating panel loyal to Beijing.
A Section on 08/28/2015