Crowds rally in Hong Kong after activists jailed

Thousands of supporters of three jailed young democracy activists took to the streets in Hong Kong to protest their sentences.

Joshua Wong, Nathan Law and Alex Chow, leaders of the 2014 Umbrella Movement rallies, were sentenced to six to eight months in jail Thursday for their role in a protest that sparked the months-long demonstrations calling for democratic reforms.

People took on the summer heat to stream from the eastern district of Wan Chai to the Court of Final appeal in the heart of Hong Kong Island, protesting the jail terms.

They held signs including: "Give back hope to my children" and "One prisoner of conscience is one too many" as they gathered in one of the biggest recent rallies the city has seen.

William Cheung, an engineer in his 40s, described the ruling as "the beginning of white terror" in Hong Kong.

"These young people are our hope for the future. We shouldn't treat them like this," Jackson Wai, a retired teacher in his 70s, told

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