Hong Kong man pleads guilty to sedition under new security law over graffiti left on back of bus seats
Hong Kong Free Press
A Hong Kong man charged under Hong Kong’s new security law has pleaded guilty over writing “seditious” graffiti on bus seats.
Chung Man-kit appeared before Chief Magistrate Victor So at the West Kowloon Magistrates’ Courts on Thursday, where he entered a guilty plea for three counts of “doing with a seditious intention an act or acts that had a seditious intention.” The charges were linked to “seditious” words written on the backs of bus seats in March and April.
The 29-year-old also faced two property damage charges, which were dropped on Thursday.
Chung was the third person charged under the Safeguarding National Security Ordinance, better known as Article 23, and the second to be convicted under the new law, according to HKFP records. His lawyer Steven Kwan said last month that it was unlikely the case would go to trial.
Chung was arrested on June 23 on suspicion of “writing words with seditious intention on multiple occasions on the back of bus seats on different public buses in March and April” in contravention of the Safeguarding National Security Ordinance.
Homegrown security law
Article 23 targets treason, insurrection, sabotage, external interference, sedition, theft of state secrets and espionage. It was fast-tracked through the city’s opposition-free legislature earlier this year and enacted on March 23, two decades after an attempt to pass similar legislation failed after mass protests in 2003.
The legislation was 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.
Under Article 23, sedition carries a maximum penalty of seven years in jail, or 10 years if the offender is found to have colluded with an “external force.” The offence was previously punishable by up to two years in prison for a first offence, and up to three years for re-offenders.
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