Last verified: September 13, 2026. Hong Kong student leader 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
Case chronology
The Court of Appeal imposed a seven-month immediate custodial sentence on Alex Chow in August 2017 following a sentence review in the Civic Square unlawful-assembly case. He later obtained bail while appealing. On February 6, 2018 the Court of Final Appeal overturned the immediate prison sentence and restored the original suspended sentence. This record therefore preserves the period of imprisonment as historical but does not classify Chow as a current prisoner.
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.