HK court rules 20 'Occupy' protesters guilty for contempt of court

HONG KONG -- The High Court of China's Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (SAR) on Friday ruled that 20 participants of the illegal "Occupy Central" movement in 2014 were guilty for the charge of contempt of court.

The quantum of sentence will be announced another time.

The Court of First Instance of the High Court made the verdict after months of trial for the lawsuit brought by the Hong Kong SAR government.

During the illegal "Occupy Central" movement, some taxi and mini-bus associations applied and were successfully issued a court injunction which banned the protesters from occupying some Mong Kok streets in Hong Kong's Kowloon district.

Law enforcement personnel with the court and the police forces later started a clearance operation in November 2014 in accordance with the injunction, but their operation was hindered by those 20 accused including Joshua Wong and Lester Shum, two student participants.

Wong, Shum and other nine accused have already pleaded guilty to the charge while the other nine refused to plead guilty.