Court's Fine Means Macau Legislator Keeps His Seat

Macau's youngest legislator Sulu Sou is set to keep his seat in the city's legislature after a judge decided his punishment for an unlawful assembly conviction should only be a fine and not a custodial sentence which would likely have seen him removed from office.

The 26-year-old, who heads the pro-democracy group New Macau Association, was charged in November 2017 with "aggravated disobedience" for taking part in a protest in May 2016 against Macau Chief Executive Fernando Chui.

The protest was over Chui's links to a 100 million yuan donation to Jinan University in Guangdong province.

Sou pleaded not guilty to the offence when he went on trial two weeks ago at Macau's Court of First Instance.

As a lawmaker, he had been immune from prosecution, but in December last year, Macau's 33-member legislature voted overwhelmingly in favour of suspending him over the incident.

During the protest, the lawmaker threw a paper plane into Chui's residential compound and prosecutors said he had disregarded police orders.

After being found guilty, the judge on Tuesday fined Sou 40,800 patacas, noting that it was the legislator's first offence and no violence was used.

The charge carries a maximum penalty of two years in jail and had Sou been given 30 days or more behind bars, he could have been stripped of his seat in the legislature.