Moreover, on Wednesday, the head of Hong Kong’s journalist union was convicted only weeks before he was due to leave town to start a…
- A Hong Kong judge convicted five speech therapists of publishing seditious books.
- Books describe Hong Kong’s pro-democracy movement.
- The head of Hong Kong’s journalist union was arrested weeks before.
A Hong Kong judge has convicted five speech therapists of publishing seditious children’s books. Their books about sheep attempting to hold back wolves from their village were analysed by officials as having a hidden political message.
After a two-month inquiry, a government-picked national security judge said that their seditious motive was evident. It comes during a crackdown on civil liberties in 2020 when China forced a new national security law.
Beijing has said the law is necessary to bring stability to the town. However, critics say it is intended to crush dissent.
The law makes it clear to summon protestors and minimises the town’s total economy while also boosting Beijing’s control over political and legal decision-making in the town.
The team of five speech therapists, who were founding members of a union, created cartoon e-books that a few analysed as attempting to describe Hong Kong’s pro-democracy movement to children.
Particularly in a book, a village of sheep retaliates against a team of wolves who are attempting to take over their settlement. In another book, the rival attackers are described as dirty and diseased wolves.
In Hong Kong, sedition is an example of the disintegration of human rights
“The seditious motive is caused not only by the words. However, from the words with the prohibited effects designed to impact on the minds of the children,” wrote Judge Kwok Wai-kin in his decision, AFP news agency reports.
He said the books’ young readers would be caused to consider that Chinese officials were coming to Hong King with the evil motives of destroying the lives of the town’s people.
Lai Man-ling, Melody Yeung, Sidney Ng, Samuel Chan, and Fong Tsz-ho, who have so far spent more than a year in jail waiting for the judgement, will be punished in the coming days.
The team, who are aged between 25 and 28, had claimed not-guilty experience until two years in jail.
“In present Hong Kong, you can go to prison for publishing children’s books with drawings of wolves and sheep. These sedition sentences are a stupid example of the disintegration of human rights in the town,” said Gwen Lee from the rights group Amnesty International.
The team was convicted under a colonial-era sedition law, which until lately had been barely used by prosecutors.
Moreover, on Wednesday, the head of Hong Kong’s journalist union was convicted only weeks before he was due to leave town to start a fellowship at Oxford University. Ronson Chan, 41, was arrested by police while reporting on a meeting of public housing holders, his employer, Channel C, said.
Police confirmed they had convicted a person after he denied showing his ID and behaved uncooperatively.
