A 36-year-old man has been charged with sedition under Hong Kong national security legislation over social media posts.
The man, who was arrested on Tuesday in Eastern District, will appear at the West Kowloon Magistrates’ Courts on Wednesday afternoon, the government has said in a statement.
The man was apprehended on suspicion of committing “knowingly publishing publications that had a seditious intention.”
“The investigation revealed that the arrested man was suspected of repeatedly publishing posts with seditious intentions on social platforms, with content provoking hatred towards the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, the Hong Kong Police Force and the Judiciary, calling for sanction against government officials as well as inciting violence,” the government has said.
According to a legal document, the defendant is a bus technician named Li Chun-kit. The defence did not apply for bail. He will be detained in custody until his case is next scheduled to be mentioned in court on March 3.
Li was accused of “publishing statements, photos, and/or pictures on Facebook with an intent to bring people into hatred, contempt or disaffection against” Hong Kong, and inciting violence or unlawful acts between March 29 last year and January 21.
Under the Safeguarding National Security Ordinance, known locally as Article 23, the maximum penalty for sedition was raised to seven years in jail, up from two years. Offenders found to have colluded with an “external force” face a maximum of 10 years behind bars.
Separate from the 2020 Beijing-enacted security law, the homegrown Safeguarding National Security Ordinance targets treason, insurrection, sabotage, external interference, sedition, theft of state secrets and espionage. It allows for pre-charge detention of up to 16 days, and suspects’ access to lawyers may be restricted, with penalties involving up to life in prison. Article 23 was shelved in 2003 amid mass protests, remaining taboo for years. But, on March 23, 2024, it was enacted having been fast-tracked and unanimously approved at the city’s opposition-free legislature.
The law has been criticised by rights NGOs, Western states and the UN as vague, broad and “regressive.” Authorities, however, cited perceived foreign interference and a constitutional duty to “close loopholes” after the 2019 protests and unrest.
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