Last verified: September 13, 2026. Hong Kong democracy activist imprisoned in August 2017 over the 2014 Civic Square protest; the Court of Final Appeal overturned the immediate custodial sentence on February 6, 2018.
Current classification
FORMER PRISONER / SENTENCE OVERTURNED; NOW ABROAD
Case chronology
The Court of Appeal imposed an eight-month immediate custodial sentence on Nathan Law in August 2017 following the government’s sentence review in the Civic Square unlawful-assembly case. He was released on bail pending appeal. On February 6, 2018 the Court of Final Appeal overturned the prison sentence and restored the original community-service disposition. This historical imprisonment is therefore not a current-custody record. Later overseas national-security measures belong to a separate transnational-repression/status chronology.
Evidence and provenance
This record distinguishes historical imprisonment from current custody. Later release, bail, overturned-sentence or exile information supersedes an older static prisoner label; sentence arithmetic is not used to invent release dates.
- Hong Kong Department of Justice — 2017 sentence review factual account
- Hong Kong Department of Justice — 2018 Court of Final Appeal statement
- Human Rights Watch — prison sentences overturned
- Free China Movement — Hong Kong Political Prisoners & the Erosion of Freedom
Related hub: Hong Kong Political Prisoners & the Erosion of Freedom — 1997–Present.