‘Fraudulent last words’: Hong Kong arrests two suspects for sedition under national security law
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The arrests came only a day after two editors of the now-defunct pro-democracy news outlet Stand News were found guilty of sedition.
PHOTO: REUTERS
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HONG KONG – The Hong Kong police said on Aug 31 that two people were arrested for sedition under a new national security law, accusing them of spreading hatred against the Chinese and local authorities.
The arrests on Aug 30 came only a day after two editors of the now-defunct pro-democracy news outlet Stand News were found guilty of sedition, the first conviction of its kind since the city came under Chinese rule in 1997.
Critics say officials in the Chinese finance hub have used the sedition offence, which has roots in British colonial rule, to target government critics and stifle dissent.
A man aged 41 and a 28-year-old woman were arrested on Aug 30 for committing “an act or acts that had a seditious intention” and remained in custody, the police said in a statement.
Hong Kong media reports said the arrests were made in connection to a note widely circulated on social media this week after the death of a university professor.
The author expressed thoughts related to despair over Hong Kong’s future. AFP was unable to verify the identity of the person who wrote it.
The police said the woman was suspected of “publishing fraudulent ‘last words’ of the deceased in relation to a recent suicide case”.
They said the man was accused of placing “memorial light boxes” in various places, with contents “provoking hatred” of the governments in Beijing and Hong Kong, the police said.
The new national security law, passed in March and commonly known as Article 23, increased the maximum jail term for sedition from two years to seven years.
It is Hong Kong’s second national security law
Those protests prompted a crackdown on free speech that has seen critics of China jailed or forced into exile
The United States and Britain are among vocal critics of the new law, which they say has curbed rights.
By Aug 1, 301 people had been arrested for national security crimes under various laws. AFP
