Hong Kong’s West Kowloon Magistrates’ Courts sentenced Hong Kong activist Chu Kai-pong to 14 months in jail on Thursday for sedition, in line with native media. Chu was convicted on Monday upon pleading responsible to 1 depend of sedition underneath the Safeguarding National Security Ordinance. He’s the primary to be convicted underneath the Safeguarding Nationwide Safety Ordinance.
Justice of the Peace Victor So held on Thursday that Chu meant to disrupt peace and incite hatred towards the Hong Kong authorities. So stated that inadequate proof pointing as to if any people had been incited by Chu didn’t represent a mitigating issue and that Chu’s offense didn’t happen over an extended length as a result of he was intercepted by the police.
Chu wore a shirt with the slogan “Liberate Hong Kong, revolution of our occasions” on it and a yellow masks with the letters “FDNOL,” which stands for the “Five Demands Not One Less” demand, when he was arrested on June 12. Hong Kong’s Excessive Court docket present in July 2021 that the phrase “Liberate Hong Kong” might incite secession and that “5 Calls for Not One Much less” included calls to repeal the now-withdrawn extradition invoice and for former Chief Govt Carrie Lam to resign.
Hong Kong police officers arrested two people underneath the Safeguarding Nationwide Safety Ordinance on August 31, citing alleged “seditious” intent. The detainees embody a 41-year-old man and a 28-year-old lady who’re suspected of forging a suicide be aware of a deceased professor to allegedly incite hatred towards the Hong Kong and Chinese language authorities.
The Safeguarding Nationwide Safety Ordinance got here into effect on March 23 after the Hong Kong Legislative Council unanimously voted in favor of it on March 19. The ordinance was handed with an amendment that empowers the chief government in council to specify a category of individuals as “public officers” once they think about it moderately essential to safeguard nationwide safety. Chief Govt John Lee and the President of the Legislative Council Andrew Leung said that the enactment of the ordinance was a historic second in Hong Kong. Lee additionally stated that the ordinance strikes a steadiness between safeguarding nationwide safety and defending human rights and freedom.
Source / Picture: jurist.org
