A courtroom in Hong Kong has handed a five-year jail time period to a twin Portuguese nationwide for “incitement to secession” after he headed a political celebration to marketing campaign for independence that was registered in the UK.
Joseph John, also called Wong Kin-chung, was the primary European twin nationwide to be convicted below Hong Kong’s 2020 Nationwide Safety Regulation, which applies to anybody of any nationality, anyplace on the planet.
John, a Portuguese citizen who additionally holds a Hong Kong everlasting id card and is a resident of the UK, was jailed for 60 months by Choose Ernest Lin after being discovered responsible of “incitement to secession” for managing the Hong Kong Independence Social gathering’s social media accounts between July 2020 and November 2022.
Rights teams stated John’s sentence underlines the truth that anybody may be arrested, prosecuted and jailed below Hong Kong’s safety legal guidelines, no matter their nationality or place of residence, on the premise of phrases and actions carried out abroad.
The prosecution accused John of “publishing, making accessible and/or persevering with to make accessible statements and photographs on Fb, Twitter, Instagram and Telegram.”
Choose Lin instructed the courtroom that, no matter whether or not the 42 posts had been written by the defendant personally, they included components of “resistance to the Hong Kong and Chinese language governments,” and had continued over a interval of 28 months, which suggests they had been deliberate relatively than a type of emotional “venting.”
“The defendant didn’t hesitate to distort historical past, demonize the Chinese language authorities, and encourage the destruction of the Hong Kong Particular Administrative Area and Chinese language governments via political and even army means,” Lin stated.
“He additionally sought assist from international governments, known as on individuals who had been ready to sacrifice their lives to function righteous males, and to boost funds to rent mercenaries, in search of to overthrow the Hong Kong SAR and the Chinese language authorities by power, and known as for international coalition forces to march into Hong Kong,” he stated, accusing John’s posts of “twisted logic and superficial slogans.”
Lin stated John’s emigration from Hong Kong 10 years in the past prompt he was loyal to different international locations than China, and that his case was deemed “critical” below definitions given within the Nationwide Safety Regulation.
‘A harmful precedent’
The London-based rights group Hong Kong Watch condemned the sentence, saying it “alerts that twin and international nationals are at critical threat of imprisonment in Hong Kong below the Nationwide Safety Regulation, and the brand new Safeguarding Nationwide Safety Ordinance” handed final month.
With the passage of the brand new safety regulation, often called Article 23, final month, convictions of twin and international nationals are an rising threat, and prone to be extra frequent and extreme, the group warned, calling on European governments to sentence the sentence.
It stated the case additionally carried implications for the case of British citizen Jimmy Lai, who’s on day 58 of his nationwide safety trial for proudly owning the now-defunct newspaper Apple Every day, the biggest pro-democracy newspaper in Hong Kong, and for taking part in pro-democracy actions.
“There’s now a harmful precedent for a twin nationwide being convicted below the Hong Kong Nationwide Safety Regulation,” the group’s Chief Govt Benedict Rogers stated in an announcement, including that journalists, politicians and human rights teams are notably in danger.
The U.S.-based Hong Kong Democracy Council commented by way of X that John’s crime “consisted of constructing social media posts for the obscure HK Independence Social gathering.”
It stated 20 individuals have been sentenced to this point below the Nationwide Safety Regulation to a complete of greater than 67 years in jail, together with 9 sentenced to juvenile coaching facilities.
Hundreds extra have been jailed or arrested on public order fees referring to latest protests, and below colonial-era sedition legal guidelines in an ongoing crackdown on public dissent and peaceable political opposition.
Former British colonial governor Chris Patten wrote in a latest op-ed that the newest nationwide safety regulation goals to “sever all contact between freedom advocates within the metropolis and the skin world.”
Writing in a March 29 commentary printed to Venture Syndicate, Patten stated a few of the offenses within the Safeguarding Nationwide Safety Regulation are “so vaguely outlined that they permit the authorities to detain nearly anybody they need on fabricated or absurd fees.”
He stated somebody might be arrested “for conserving an previous copy of the pro-democracy newspaper Apple Every day … and displaying it to a pal in their very own residence.”
Translated with further reporting by Luisetta Mudie. Edited by Roseanne Gerin.
