Hong Kong national security police arrest man over ‘seditious’ online forum posts

Hong Kong Free Press

Hong Kong national security police have arrested a man on suspicion of doing an act or acts with seditious intention, in connection with statements he made on popular online forum LIHKG.

Hong Kong Police. Photo: Kyle Lam/HKFP. — Hong Kong Police Force. Photo: Kyle Lam/HKFP.

Tsang Kwok-hei, 35, was apprehended by officers from the National Security Department of the police force in Sha Tin on Thursday afternoon for allegedly breaching the colonial-era Crimes Ordinance.

Police alleged that Tsang had repeatedly published posts with “seditious intention” on social media platforms, with their content promoting hatred towards Beijing and the Hong Kong government.

According to the charge sheet, the online posts were published on discussion forum LIHKG. The statements also intended to counsel disobedience to law or any lawful order, a court document read.

Tsang was taken to the West Kowloon Magistrates’ Courts on Friday afternoon to face the charge.

Police said on Friday that they had searched Tsang’s home with a warrant and seized some electronic communication devices which they suspected were used to publish the alleged posts.

“Police remind members of the public that ‘doing an act or acts with seditious intention’ is a serious crime. Offenders shall be liable to imprisonment for two years on first conviction. Members of the public are urged not to defy the law,” a police statement read.

Sedition is not covered by the Beijing-imposed national security law, which targets secession, subversion, collusion with foreign forces and terrorist acts and mandates up to life imprisonment. Those convicted under the sedition law – last amended in the 1970s when Hong Kong was still a British colony – face a maximum penalty of two years in prison.