After pleading guilty to insurrection, a Hong Kong gentleman who was wearing a T-shirt with a rally phrase on it was given a 14-month prison sentence.
The city’s prosecutor has already imposed the sentence under a new regional regional security law passed in March.
The law, also called Article 23, expands on the national security law that was imposed by Beijing in 2020.
Beijing and Hong Kong defended the legislation, saying it was required for balance, while critics feared it might further degrade civil rights in the city.
Chu Kai-pong, 27, was arrested at a train station in June wearing a T-shirt sporting the word” Liberate Hong Kong, trend of our days”. He was even wearing a helmet that read “FDNOL”- letters for another tagline,” Five demands, never one less”.
During the months-long anti-government rallies in 2019, both phrases were often heard in large-scale protests in Hong Kong. He was also reportedly carrying a box filled with his feces to use against those who opposed his views, according to local media reports.
Chu was arrested on 12 June, the celebration of a crucial day of the 2019 protests when especially big audiences took to the state’s roads.
According to Reuters, Chu admitted to telling officers he wore the T-shirt to inform people of the demonstrations. He recently spent three months in prison for allegedly possessing another offensive goods and wearing a T-shirt with the same tagline.
Since June 14th, Chu has been held in custody again. On Monday, he pleaded guilty to one matter of doing an action with a subversive purpose”.
In a statement released on Thursday, chief judge Victor So, who was handpicked by the state to hear national security circumstances, said Chu intended to” revive the thoughts behind” the 2019 protests.
He said Chu” showed no remorse” after his previous faith, and that the word reflected the” severity” of the rebellion cost.
Human rights organizations have criticized the faith and punishment. Amnesty International’s China producer Sarah Brooks described it as” a blatant assault on the right to liberty of expression”, and called for the overturning of Article 23 in a speech.
The sentencing comes after a landmark ruling of another case last month, when two journalists who led the pro-democracy newspaper Stand News were found guilty of sedition. That marked the first sedition case against the city’s journalists since Hong Kong’s handover from Britain to China in 1997.