Joshua Wong walked free Monday after serving one month of a two month sentence related to protests in 2014.
Speaking to reporters immediately afterward, he echoed protesters' calls for the city's leader to resign.
"I believe that it is time for Carrie Lam to end her term, step down and fully withdraw the evil bill," Wong said, referring the current Chief Executive.
He warned that "before the 22nd anniversary of Hong Kong sovereignty (on July 1), more and more people, not only 1 million or 2 million people, will come and join our fight until the day we get back our basic human rights and freedom."
Wong referred to a television interview Lam gave last Wednesday, where she choked back tears as she spoke about her sacrifice for Hong Kong, "When I was in prison I saw Carrie Lam crying on TV, all I can say is when she was crying out tears Hong Kong people are bleeding blood."
One of Wong's first actions Monday was to pay his respects at a memorial in Admiralty, near the main site of the protests, where a man fell to his death Saturday after climbing a shopping mall and displaying signs calling for the withdrawal of the extradition bill.
Wong's political party, Demosisto, has been among several youth groups -- all of which have their roots in the 2014 Umbrella Movement -- playing a big role in the protests against the extradition bill, which have been ongoing for weeks.
In a statement Saturday after Lam said she was suspending passage of the controversial bill. Demosisto said Hong Kongers should "demand that the bill be shelved for good, stand against political prosecution of protesters, condemn police brutality, and call for Lam's resignation."
"That Lam continues to blame the bill's widespread opposition as a result of Hong Kongers' misunderstanding of it is also condescending," Demosisto said Saturday. "Our movement may have won a battle, but the war is not yet over. We urge the international community not to turn away."
Wong appeared cognizant of that community in his statements Monday, speaking in Cantonese, English and Mandarin. He also thanked supporters in Taiwan, where the Hong Kong protests have become a major issue in the island's presidential election, creating yet another headache for Beijing.
Born in 1996, eight months before control of Hong Kong was handed over from the UK to China, Wong has spent most of his adolescence and all of his early adulthood fighting for the city's rights against what he and others say is increasing encroachment by Beijing.
A student leader during 2014's Occupy protests -- which called for universal suffrage in Hong Kong -- Wong became something of an international figurehead for the movement, and even appeared on the cover of Time magazine. His role in the protests later became the subject of a 2017 Netflix documentary called "Teenager vs. Superpower."
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