A Hong Kong court on Tuesday sentenced a veteran activist to nine months in prison under a colonial-era sedition law for planning to protest the Beijing Winter Olympics earlier this year.
Koo Sze-yiu, 75, had planned to take a handcrafted wooden coffin to the China Liaison Office in the city on the opening day of the Games on February 4, but national security police raided his apartment and arrested him that day. before any protest could take place on the spot.
Koo denied the charge of “attempting or preparing to commit an act or acts with seditious intent,” public broadcaster RTHK reported.
Prior to his sentence, Koo was in custody for more than five months after being denied bail on national security grounds.
Hong Kong’s sedition law was introduced by the British colonial government in 1938, prohibiting “hatred or contempt or discontent” towards the monarch and the colonial administration. It remained in the statutes after the city was handed over to China in 1997.
Unused for decades, the law was revived by Hong Kong prosecutors amid Beijing’s widespread crackdown on civil society following the city’s 2019 pro-democracy protests.
In a high-profile case, five speech therapists were charged with “conspiracy to distribute seditious materials” for the publication of a series of illustrated children’s books.
Sedition carries a maximum sentence of two years in prison for the first offense and three years for a subsequent conviction.
Critics accused Hong Kong officials of using the sedition law — along with a more recently introduced national security law — to quell dissent.
The Hong Kong government has repeatedly defended national security legislation, saying it has restored order to the city after widespread pro-democracy protests.
The national security law was enacted in 2020 and prohibits acts of secession, subversion, terrorism and collusion with foreign forces – with the maximum penalty of life imprisonment.
Two years after its introduction, no opposition lawmakers remain in Hong Kong’s legislature, while nearly all of the city’s leading pro-democracy figures, including activists and politicians, have been forced into exile or imprisoned — with dozens of them behind bars.
Source: CNN Brasil
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