A Hong Kong man has been sentenced to 14 months in jail after pleading responsible to sedition for sporting a T-shirt with a protest slogan on it.
The jail time period is the primary handed down by town’s court docket below a brand new native nationwide safety legislation that was handed in March.
The legislation, additionally known as Article 23, expands on the nationwide safety legislation that was imposed by Beijing in 2020.
Critics feared the legislation may additional erode civil liberties within the metropolis, whereas Beijing and Hong Kong defended it, saying it was crucial for stability.
Chu Kai-pong, 27, was arrested at a subway station in June sporting a T-shirt sporting the phrase “Liberate Hong Kong, revolution of our occasions”. He was additionally sporting a masks that learn “FDNOL” – initials for one more slogan, “5 calls for, not one much less”.
Each slogans have been steadily heard in large-scale protests in Hong Kong throughout the months-long anti-government demonstrations in 2019. Native media reported he was additionally carrying a field containing his excrement to make use of towards individuals opposing his views.
Chu was arrested on 12 June, the anniversary of a key date of the 2019 protests when significantly massive crowds took to town’s streets.
The court docket heard Chu instructed police he wore the T-shirt to remind individuals of the protests, in line with Reuters. He was beforehand jailed for 3 months in a separate incident for sporting a T-shirt with the identical slogan, in addition to possession of different offensive objects.
Chu has been remanded in custody since 14 June. On Monday, he pleaded responsible to 1 rely of doing an act with a seditious intention”.
In an announcement launched on Thursday, chief Justice of the Peace Victor So, who was handpicked by the federal government to listen to nationwide safety instances, mentioned Chu meant to “reignite the concepts behind” the 2019 protests.
He mentioned Chu “confirmed no regret” after his earlier conviction, and that the sentence mirrored the “seriousness” of the sedition cost.
The conviction and sentencing have been criticised by human rights teams. Amnesty Worldwide’s China director Sarah Brooks described it as “a blatant assault on the appropriate to freedom of expression”, and known as for the repealing of Article 23 in an announcement.
The sentencing comes after a landmark ruling of one other case final month, when two journalists who led the pro-democracy newspaper Stand Information have been discovered responsible of sedition. That marked the first sedition case against the city’s journalists since Hong Kong’s handover from Britain to China in 1997.
