HONG KONG - A Hong Kong man was sentenced to three months in jail on Jan 10 for wearing a T-shirt with “seditious” slogans from the huge and at times violent democracy protests in 2019.

Chu Kai Pong, 26, was arrested at Hong Kong’s International Airport before he was to board a flight to Taiwan. He was charged in November and has been in remand since.

The court was told the airport’s security guards had spotted Chu wearing a T-shirt with the words “Free Hong Kong” in English and “Liberate Hong Kong, revolution of our times” in Chinese, and reported him to the police.

In the first trial under a sweeping national security law Beijing imposed on the financial hub in 2020, the Chinese phrase was found to be “able to incite secession”. A motorcyclist carrying a flag bearing those words was found guilty in 2021 and sentenced to nine years in jail.

Judge Victor So, one of the justices handpicked by the government to try national security cases, said on Jan 10 that Chu had “knowingly broken the law” despite previous court verdicts over the slogans.

Chu pleaded guilty to one count of “doing acts with seditious intent” and one count of “possession of seditious publications” earlier in January.

He had also been in possession of another T-shirt with the English slogan “Hong Kong Independence”, according to the court, while his luggage contained another T-shirt and three black flags – a colour donned by 2019 protesters.

Chu’s lawyer argued freedom of thought was not restricted by law and the seditious intention found in the words might not be the defendant’s intent.

The prosecution said that by displaying the slogan in public, Chu could incite others to try to separate Hong Kong from China.

Since the national security law was enacted, the pre-existing charge of sedition – a once little-used legal hangover from British colonial rule – was dusted off and used to clamp down on anti-government speeches and acts. AFP