Hong Kong activist Agnes Chow freed

Hong Kong pro-democracy activist Agnes Chow was released from prison on Saturday, on a day that marks the second anniversary of the violent clashes between the police and protesters outside the city's legislature.

The 24-year-old activist served nearly seven months for her role in the 2019 protests outside the territory's police headquarters.

She was convicted in December along with fellow youth activist Joshua Wongand sentenced to 10 months in jail.

Wong remains in prison and the reason for Chow's early release was not immediately clear.

As Chow walked out of the Tai Lam Correctional Institution in Hong Kong's New Territories district, she was greeted by a crowd of reporters and supporters.

She did not speak to the media and was ushered into a car with friends and fellow democracy activists.

Supporters could be heard shouting "Agnes Chow add oil," a Cantonese-language expression of encouragement that was widely used at the protests that roiled the city.

Who is Agnes Chow?

Chow belongs to a generation of young activists who cut their teeth in politics as a teenager. She, along with Wong and Nathan Law, who has since been given asylum in Britain, came to prominence during the 2014 "umbrella movement" calling for universal suffrage.

The three of them founded the now-disbanded democracy party Demosisto in 2016.

Chow is one of the activists credited with bringing international attention to the city's pro-democracy movement, owing to her fluency in English, Cantonese and Japanese.

She has a sizable following in Japan and primarily posts in Japanese on her Twitter handle — which has half a million followers.

Why Chow may not be free for long

Chow was also arrested under Beijing's controversial national security law for Hong Kong — on suspicion of "colluding with foreign forces" by campaigning for sanctions.

She was one of the first opposition politicians to be arrested under the new law but has not been charged yet.

Once charged, Chow will most likely be denied bail and be sent back to custody. If convicted, she could face a life sentence.

Media tycoon Jimmy Lai is the most high-profile activist to be charged under the security law.

What happened two years ago?

On June 12, 2019, an estimated 1 million people marched against the city government's proposal to allow extraditions to China, a pivotal moment in Hong Kong's democracy movement.

Riot police used tear gas and rubber bullets to disperse the huge crowds. Footage of the violent clashes deepened public anger.

What followed was an increasingly violent protest movement calling for full democracy that raged for seven straight months.

Beijing has since managed to clamp down on the movement, passing a stringent security law for the city that criminalized dissent.

Critics say that the law has shattered the "one country, two systems" model that was a precondition of the handover of Hong Kong from Britain to China in 1997.

Thousands of police officers have been deployed to prevent citizens from marking the anniversary of the huge march.

adi/mm (AFP, Reuters)