The Hong Kong sedition law and its existence again comes under serious discussion after 5 Hong Kong speech therapists were arrested on Wednesday for promoting anti government feelings.
The accusation was for the publishing of children’s books with “questionable” cartoons in them. The picture book in question had been designed with a flock of sheep and wolves which were accused to be symbolic of the antigovernmental feelings and give air to the rising fire of opposition towards the Hong Kong central government.
This has spread serious distrust and discontent among the rights campaigners calling it an “act of repression”. The accusations had arrived from the different events and situations portrayed in the children’s book which were misleading according to the court.
In the book, there is a pack of wolves that were believed to be depicting the government and a flock of sheep depicting the protesters. The drawings were believed to be remarkably similar to the events of the 2019 pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong.
In one book, the wolves were shown to occupy the village and face opposition from the sheep, and in the other, the sheep had to leave their village but were caught by the wolves.
This event was strikingly similar to the actual events of the 2019 protests where the twelve pro-democracy protestors tried to escape Hong Kong riding a speedboat but were caught by the Chinese Coastguards. The court of Hong Kong, therefore, found the books a “conspiracy” to instill the thoughts of separatism in young minds
The Court Room:
Lorie Lai, Melody Yeung, Sidney Ng, Samuel Chan, and Marco Fong, each of whom belonged to the general union of Hong Kong speech therapists were all convicted on Wednesday, 6th September. The accused pleaded “not guilty” and refused to bring in any witness.
All the members were aged between 26 and 29 and showed no remorse for their actions. They were convicted by Kwok who was handpicked by the higher authorities to manage cases dealing with breach of national security.
District Court Judge Kwok Wai Kin gave his statement justifying the reason of the conviction making it clear that the words and the pictures were not the reason of conviction but the aftereffect the same had in mind of the young children of 4 years age or below was.
He said that the pictures would affect the trust the future generation has for the ruling government believing that the government is set to ruin their home just like the wolves in the picture.
The defendants when given a chance to speak were very bold about their support for the “sheep” when one of the defendants made the remark,
“I don’t regret my choice, and I hope I can always stand on the side of the sheep”
They also made noticeably clear that they don’t regret standing beside the protestors. One of the also quoted that,
“freedom with limitations is not freedom”
The court found the defendants guilty of doubting the decisions of the central government and their clear opposition to the national security law imposed by Beijing in 2020.
The court charged the defendants of spreading separatism by sowing the seeds of doubts in the young minds against the PRC government.
Background:
The sedition law has recently been under a lot of fire after the imposition of the national security law under Beijing, which again started using the law of sedition which was once used during the colonial period of Hong Kong.
It had come after a consistent period of Hong Kong protecting the citizens rights for a long time. The citizens were under a lot of discontentment about the change in situation worrying about China’s increasing influence on Hong Kong.
But unfortunately, since the expansion of the scope of sedition last December, the prosecution of citizens under this column has increased in leaps and bounds. This is the first Sedition Case in Hong Kong that went up for the trial but the growing opposition to this law and its practice is alarming.
The court stuck to its belief of the speech therapist’s union being set up for political purposes and sentenced the 5 defendants to 19 months of prison, which has come under fire of opposition and questions in international media and scenarios.
