SEVERAL hundred masked protesters chanting for revolution have gathered at Hong Kong’s High Court for the appeal hearing of an activist sentenced to six years in prison for his part in a violent night-long clash with police.

Edward Leung was sentenced in June 2018 for his role in a February 8, 2016, outbreak of violence in the city state’s working-class Mong Kok district.

Leung is among a generation of young political activists who emerged after 2014’s failed non-violent protests over Beijing’s decision to restrict elections.

Leung has been an advocate of establishing independence for Hong Kong, which reverted from British to Chinese rule in 1997.

Supporters outside the court today hoped for his release many are reported to have worn masks despite the recent ban.

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ELSEWHERE, Syrian Kurds have issued a “general mobilisation” call in north-eastern Syria along the border with Turkey, as Ankara poised for an imminent invasion of the area.

Turkey has long threatened an attack on the Kurdish fighters in Syria whom Ankara considers terrorists allied with a Kurdish insurgency within Turkey.

A Syrian war monitoring group, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, reported yesterday that people were fleeing the border town of Tal Abyad, which Turkey is expected to attack first.

Expectations of a Turkish invasion rose after US president Donald Trump announced that American troops would step aside.

MEANWHILE, German authorities have carried out raids in connection with threatening far-right emails sent to mosques, political parties, the media and migrant reception centres.

Bavaria’s state criminal police office said seven properties in the south-eastern German region and three other states were searched.

The raids were prompted by investigations into 23 emails sent to recipients across Germany over a two-week period in July that contained threats of bomb attacks, among other things.

The authors signed off as People’s Front, Combat 18 or Blood And Honour.

Seven people are under investigation and six of them were temporarily detained this morning, according to Bavaria’s state interior minister, Joachim Herrmann.

The National: Bavaria’s state interior minister, Joachim HerrmannBavaria’s state interior minister, Joachim Herrmann

FINALLY, police in Bangladesh are investigating the killing of a student at a university dormitory allegedly by student activists loyal to prime minister Sheikh Hasina after he criticised a recent water-sharing deal with India. Police have arrested 11 students for their alleged involvement.

Today, students took part in a procession to demand justice.