Paper effigies were burnt yesterday in Hong Kong, and it’s not because of the upcoming Hungry Ghost Festival.
The effigies that were set on fire were actually of Singapore’s Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong and his late father, the founding prime minister Lee Kuan Yew, and they were being burnt as part of a demonstration calling for the release of 16-year-old blogger Amos Yee.
The South China Morning Post reports that around 50 people from various civic and political groups attended the rally near the Singapore Consulate in Hong Kong’s Admiralty district yesterday, a day before the Yee’s expected sentencing.
Yee was convicted in May on two criminal charges: wounding religious feelings in an expletive-laden video comparing Lee Kuan Yew to Jesus, and circulating an obscene cartoon of the former prime minister, who died in March. He faces a hearing in court today.
Representatives from the different groups took turns to speak and rant over Yee’s disproportionate punishment while burning effigies of the Lee ministers.
The protest yesterday follows the one that was just held a couple of days ago in the same location, where over 50 students from Hong Kong universities handed a letter of protest to Howard Fu, Vice Consul-General of Singapore to Hong Kong.
In rally-restricted Singapore, over 500 folks came to Hong Lim Park yesterday for the one demonstration that was held in protest of the punishment Yee suffered.
Photo: Lyn Lee via The Online Citizen Facebook page
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