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Brian Wong

A Hong Kong court has sentenced a third person convicted of sedition under the domestic national security law to 14 months in prison, ruling he defied the nation’s sovereignty and instigated hatred towards officials with persistent calls for “dictators” Xi Jinping and John Lee Ka-chiu to step down.
Au Kin-wai, 58, pleaded guilty on Friday to “knowingly publishing publications that had a seditious intention” under the Safeguarding National Security Ordinance.
The court heard the jobless defendant posted 239 largely repetitive videos and images featuring anti-government slogans on three social media platforms between March 23 and June 19 this year.
The slogans included statements suggesting peace would return to Hong Kong, Taiwan and the world if Chief Executive Lee, President Xi and the Communist Party gave up their powers.
Au called the party an “evil fascist regime” and a “metonym for lies”, citing its founder Mao Zedong in saying: “Revolution is no crime, to rebel is justified.”
Other remarks took aim at the city’s police force and slammed “rogue cops” for “demonic acts”.
The accused also made an apparent reference to late Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping, calling him a “butcher” who slaughtered people during the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown, but a police case summary refrained from drawing inferences to the statement’s intention.
Chief Magistrate Victor So Wai-tak, who is among the few jurists hand-picked by the city leader to hear national security cases, said the videos’ repetitive and monotonous nature could easily indoctrinate their viewers in hatred and contempt of authorities.
“The relevant posts advocated toppling the central regime and the [Hong Kong] government, as well as referring to the Taiwan problem and sensitive dates, clearly in an attempt to challenge the nation’s sovereignty,” he said.
The magistrate noted Au’s attacks on Xi and Lee were capable of creating chasms and division in society.

He also highlighted the defendant’s “contempt of the law” with the use of his real name in his social media accounts, as he rejected a contention by the defence that he was less culpable for not trying to hide his identity on the Internet.
The magistrate trimmed seven months off from a starting point of 21 months’ imprisonment to reflect Au’s guilty plea.
Au was previously jailed for six months for a similar offence under a colonial-era sedition law.
The now-repealed legislation was replaced by provisions of the ordinance enacted in accordance with a requirement under Article 23 of the Basic Law, the city’s mini-constitution.
Sedition is punishable by up to seven years in jail under the new law. The maximum jail sentence was previously set at two years for a first offence.
Two other men were jailed on Thursday for 10 and 14 months respectively for sedition after the same magistrate ruled that more severe sentences were required to better deter transgressions and protect the country.


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Hong Kong courts

Hong Kong jails third person convicted for sedition. Photo: Jelly Tse

The court said the defendant’s remarks against city leader John Lee (pictured) were capable of creating chasms and division in society. Photo: Elson Li

Hong Kong judge urges ‘severe’ sedition penalties, jails 2 in first Article 23 law sentences

Chief Magistrate Victor So says the Safeguarding National Security Ordinance stipulates a maximum sentence for sedition that is more than triple the length of its now-repealed predecessor. Photo: Jelly Tse

Sedition carries a maximum jail sentence of seven years under the ordinance. It was previously punishable by up to two years’ imprisonment for a first offence under a colonial-era sedition law. Photo: Jelly Tse

Hong Kong man pleads guilty to sedition for wearing clothes with pro-independence slogans

Hongkonger Chu Kai-pong, 27, pleads guilty to sedition at West Kowloon Court. Photo: Jelly Tse

An image of Chu Kai-pong from his social media account. Officers spotted him “acting suspiciously” outside an MTR station. Photo: Facebook/Mutong Chu

Hong Kong authorities reject claims by 23-nation coalition about state of media freedom

Former Stand News acting editor-in-chief Patrick Lam (left) and ex-editor-in-chief Chung Pui-kuen have been found guilty of sedition. Photo: Edmond So

The ruling against Stand News and its former editors has drawn a backlash from the city’s largest journalists group and observers abroad. Photo: May Tse

News

Hong Kong

Law and Crime

Au Kin-wai, 58, pleads guilty to ‘knowingly publishing publications that had a seditious intention’


Au Kin-wai, 58, pleads guilty to ‘knowingly publishing publications that had a seditious intention’.


Crime in Hong Kong

Hong Kong national security law (NSL)