Three HKFP stories, starting with a 14-month sentence following the first Article 23 seditious T-shirt trial…
Chu Kai-pong, 27, was convicted on Monday after he pleaded guilty to one count of “doing with a seditious intention an act or acts that had a seditious intention,” under the Safeguarding National Security Ordinance, known colloquially as Article 23.
He was arrested on June 12 while wearing a T-shirt with a 2019 protest slogan on it, “Liberate Hong Kong, revolution of our times”…
Chu was also wearing a yellow mask printed with the letters “FDNOL” when he was arrested…
Magistrate Victor So on Thursday ruled that Chu had intended to disrupt the peace and stir up hatred against the Hong Kong government.
The magistrate also said that the defence’s submission that there was no proof that people had been incited by Chu did not amount to a mitigating factor.
…So also said that the duration of Chu’s offence was short only because he was promptly intercepted by the police. The court earlier heard that Chu had worn the T-shirt for just 25 minutes before he was arrested.
Moving on to seditious bus graffiti…
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.” He was then sentenced to 10 months in jail.
The 29-year-old also faced two property damage charges, which were dropped on Thursday.
(In case you thought ‘well, that’s vandalism’.)
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.
The offending phrases, written between March 23 and April 21, included the 2019 protest slogan “Liberate Hong Kong, revolution of our times,” and others advocating independence, including “Hong Kong independence, the only way out.” The former was ruled capable of inciting secession during the city’s first trial under a Beijing-imposed security law in 2021.
…So ruled that Chung had written statements endangering national security and advocating Hong Kong independence on multiple occasions. He added that although the slogans were written on seats towards the back of the bus, they were still visible to the public. Society would “fall into chaos” if he was not stopped, So ruled.
And former Democratic Party lawmaker Lam Cheuk-ting and six others are tried for rioting for going to Yuen Long MTR station during the attack by a local mob on passengers on July 21, 2019…
Prosecutor Jasmine Ching told the court Lam was not a credible witness and that he should be blamed for the escalation of violence between the white-clad group and other people gathered in the station that night.
…She claimed that Lam had “abused his power for personal gains,” such as by live-streaming on his Facebook page when he arrived at the scene, in order to “attract traffic.”
Lam also made three public Facebook posts ahead of the attack that “on the surface warned residents to seek safety, but in reality urged others to gather in Yuen Long to stir troubles, either discreetly or manifestly,” she added.
The prosecutor also accused Lam of “smearing” the white-clad people as a “gang,” further fanning the flames.
Ching said the white-clad group intended to “protect Yuen Long and their homeland,” a claim that the Court of Appeal had rejected in an appeal over a separate rioting case relating to the same attack, but that their intention was “lost” due to Lam’s provocation.
“If only [Lam] and other people in the station had dispersed, the event could have calmed down,” she said. “[Lam] must have turned a blind eye to the demands of those in white so that he could achieve his purpose.”
To what extent will the court accept this version of events?
Some reading for the weekend…
Phrase of the week from China Media Project is ‘Soundless Saturation’ (润物无声)…
This evocative phrase, which could also be translated “quietly nourishing,” references an early spring drizzle falling gently over the world. It is a colorful phrase that now describes the drive by the Chinese Communist Party leadership for more innovative and evocative deployment of state propaganda themes both domestically and internationally. The phrase expresses a trend in CCP thinking about the need for more subtle and effective means to disseminate and inculcate the party’s thoughts and agendas.
Will it be applied to Hong Kong government press releases?
From elsewhere in the world, a completely nuts thread on the Russian mafia taking over the funeral/cemeteries business as the sector sees rising demand because of bodies coming back from Ukraine…
In the Vsevolozhsk region, a gun battle broke out between rival funeral companies during a funeral. As well as opening fire, they used a coffin with a deceased woman inside as a battering ram.
Soundless saturation is just cute panda videos and oversaturated chongqing pictures, nothing new here.
“He added that although the slogans were written on seats towards the back of the bus, they were still visible to the public. Society would “fall into chaos” if he was not stopped, So ruled.”
I saw this yesterday. Just about the most depressing thing I’ve read in the local press in my 36 years in HK.
To what extent will the court accept this version of events?
Hook, line and sinker.
Hong Kong society must be very fragile indeed if a few slogans on the back of bus seats is enough to make it “fall into chaos”. But if calling a gang a gang is now a crime, then maybe it has already fallen.
Cunt Magistrate Victor So has really outdone himself. Throwing a kid in prison for a year and 2 months over a god damned T shirt will really play well in the western press. His claims that society will fall into chaos over a T shirt is some of the most pathetic shit I have read. Do these magistrates and jurists live in a different reality than the rest of us?
Does Jasmine Ching also argue that the provocateurs also purposely put their skulls and other body parts conveniently in the way of sticks, bats and projectiles in order to garner public sympathy and “attract traffic” if they got severely injured, thus besmirching the reputations of the fine white-cladded Yuen Long homelanders?
In many places in the world, an altercation (that exceeds the exchange of words) with a politically connected individual, means you’re going to jail. Physically defending yourself will only ensure you’re ultimately incarcerated (with prejudice). In places like that, we take our lumps. We shut our mouths. We remember that police / courts are there to protect vested interests. For a court to do, or to be seen to administer, justice is not what’s necessary to maintain order. Maintaining the order is the goal. I wouldn’t date to name any of those places… the worst of them legislate extraterritorial laws to capture and punish that kind of speech.
“Do these magistrates and jurists live in a different reality than the rest of us?”
Yes. A very coddled one, at that.
Would I also get jailed for a T-shirt saying :
“Liberate Honolulu Resolution Of Old Crimes”?
On Thursday, our blogger referred to a residential
Building in Tuen Mun named “imaginatively (putridly?)”
Skye-hi.
I hope the poem that follows is not too bad for a
Sunday afternoon.
I’m so happy
I’ll tell you why
I’ve got a flat in
Skye-hi.
Come along too
Be as happy as I
A big fat cat in
Skye-hi.
I’m going to sell
One happy day
Make money off it
The Hong Kong way.
A sucker will come
One innocent day
For me, a profit
The Hong Kong way.
*
But no-one will come
And no-one will buy.
A poor skinny moggie in
Lo-skye.
Nice one @Knownot – I almost missed it.