Hong Kong court sentences first activist to 14 months under new security ordinance News
Voice of America, Cantonese Service, Iris Tong, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Hong Kong court sentences first activist to 14 months under new security ordinance

Hong Kong’s West Kowloon Magistrates’ Courts sentenced activist Chu Kai-pong to 14 months in prison on Thursday for sedition, according to local media. Chu was convicted on Monday upon pleading guilty to one count of sedition under the Safeguarding National Security Ordinance. He is the first to be convicted under the new ordinance.

Magistrate Victor So held that Chu intended to disrupt peace and incite hatred against the Hong Kong government. So said that insufficient evidence pointing to whether any individuals were incited by Chu did not constitute a mitigating factor and that Chu’s offense did not occur over a long duration because he was intercepted by the police.

Chu wore a shirt with the slogan “Liberate Hong Kong, revolution of our times” and a yellow mask with the letters “FDNOL,” which stands for “Five Demands Not One Less,” when he was arrested on June 12. Hong Kong’s High Court found in July 2021 that the phrase “Liberate Hong Kong” could incite secession and that “Five Demands Not One Less” included calls to repeal the now-withdrawn extradition bill and for former Chief Executive Carrie Lam to resign.

Hong Kong police officials arrested two individuals under the Safeguarding National Security Ordinance on August 31, citing alleged “seditious” intent. The detainees include a 41-year-old man and a 28-year-old woman who are suspected of forging a suicide note of a deceased professor to allegedly incite hatred against the Hong Kong and Chinese government.

The Safeguarding National Security Ordinance came into effect on March 23 after the Hong Kong Legislative Council unanimously voted in favor of it on March 19. The ordinance was passed with an amendment that empowers the chief executive in council to specify a class of persons as “public officers” when they consider it reasonably necessary to safeguard national security. Chief Executive John Lee and the President of the Legislative Council Andrew Leung stated that the enactment of the ordinance was a historical moment in Hong Kong. Lee also said that the ordinance strikes a balance between safeguarding national security and protecting human rights and freedom.

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