HONG KONG: A 27-year-old man faces up to several years in jail for sedition, after pleading guilty on Monday (Sep 16) to wearing a protest T-shirt that prosecutors say flouts Hong Kong’s new national security law.
Chu Kai-pong had already served a three-month prison term for sedition in January for wearing and keeping in his luggage clothes and flags with protest slogans.
On Monday, he pleaded guilty to one count of “doing acts with seditious intent”, leading to the city’s first conviction under the new tougher law.
One of the slogans on the clothing, “Liberate Hong Kong, revolution of our times”, had been found to be “capable of inciting secession” in a separate court case.
Chu was arrested for wearing a T-shirt with the offending slogan and a mask bearing protest phrases on Jun 12 – a date associated with the huge and sometimes violent protests in 2019.
Chu told police he believed the slogan called for the return of Hong Kong to British rule, the court heard, and he chose the outfit in order to remind the public of the 2019 protests when the phrase was widely used by demonstrators.
Convicting Chu following his guilty plea, Chief Magistrate Victor So added that two other offences of failing to produce an ID card and loitering were dropped.
Chu, who has been in custody for three months, will be sentenced on Thursday.
