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Hong Kong court to deliver verdict in sedition case against closed Stand News on Thursday
Verdict, originally slated for last October, was adjourned three times pending appellate court ruling on separate sedition case
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A Hong Kong court will hand down its verdict on Thursday on whether a now-closed online news service was guilty of publishing seditious material in the aftermath of the 2019 anti-government protests.
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The District Court’s ruling on Stand News and two former senior editors will mark the first time a judge hand-picked by the city leader to preside over proceedings under the Beijing-decreed national security law has demarcated acceptable reporting boundaries.
The verdict, first slated for last October, was adjourned three times pending a ruling by the Court of Appeal in a separate sedition case. A substantive hearing in the case’s final appeal at the top court is still pending.
District Judge Kwok Wai-kin, who presided over the Stand News trial, was to retire at the end of August but had his term extended until November next year.
Former editor-in-chief Chung Pui-kuen, 54, and ex-acting editor-in-chief Patrick Lam Shiu-tung, 36, face a joint conspiracy charge of publishing and reproducing seditious publications over 17 news and commentary articles alleged to have promoted anti-government ideologies and discredited Beijing, the city administration and the national security law.
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The court also recorded a not guilty plea from Best Pencil HK, Stand News’ holding company, which was unrepresented in the 55-day trial.
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