International Courant
Chu Kai-pong is the primary individual to be convicted below Article 23, the Chinese language-ruled metropolis’s robust new nationwide safety regulation.
A Hong Kong man has been sentenced to 14 months in jail for carrying a T-shirt and masks with protest slogans deemed “seditious,” the primary individual to be convicted below the town’s robust new nationwide safety regulation.
Chu Kai-pong, 27, was sentenced by the West Kowloon District Court docket on Thursday after pleading responsible earlier within the week to at least one depend of “performing with seditious intent”, an offence that carries a most penalty of 10 years in jail below new laws referred to as Article 23.
Chu was arrested for carrying a T-shirt studying “Liberate Hong Kong, revolution of our instances” and a yellow masks with the phrases “FDNOL” – an abbreviation for an additional pro-democracy slogan, “5 calls for, not one much less” – on June 12, the fifth anniversary of the town’s huge pro-democracy protests in 2019.
The 2019 protest motion was probably the most concerted problem to the Hong Kong authorities because the former British colony returned to Chinese language rule in 1997. The motion waned amid widespread arrests, the exile of pro-democracy activists, the COVID-19 pandemic and China’s imposition of an earlier safety regulation in 2020.
Referring to the 2019 protests, Chief Justice Victor So — a decide hand-picked by the federal government to listen to nationwide safety circumstances — stated Thursday that Chu “took benefit of a symbolic day to revive the concepts behind the unrest.”
In January, the decide sentenced Chu to a few months in jail for carrying an identical T-shirt on the airport and possessing publications deemed seditious. He famous that Chu’s “subsequent act” confirmed that the “deterrent impact of his earlier sentence was inadequate.”
Suppressing Discord
The crime of sedition was created throughout British colonial rule, which resulted in 1997, however was hardly ever used till Hong Kong authorities revived it in 2020 following protests.
After the protests have been suppressed, China imposed a nationwide safety regulation on the town in mid-2020 to quell additional unrest.
The brand new nationwide safety regulation – the Safeguarding Nationwide Safety Ordinance, also referred to as Article 23 – got here into impact in March.
The revised regulation expands the crime of sedition to incorporate inciting hatred in opposition to the Chinese language communist management, with a most jail sentence of 10 years if the sedition is dedicated in collaboration with an “exterior pressure.”
Critics, together with Western nations reminiscent of the US, say Article 23 will additional undermine freedoms and silence dissent in Hong Kong, a monetary hub as soon as thought-about one of many freest areas in China.
This month, 303 folks have been arrested below the 2 safety legal guidelines, of which 176 have been prosecuted and 160 have been convicted.
China has imposed a draconian nationwide safety regulation in Hong Kong after huge pro-democracy protests in 2019 (File: Danish Siddiqui/Reuters)
Hong Kong man sentenced to 14 months in jail for ‘inflammatory’ T-shirt | Political information
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