Hong Kong’s national security police have arrested a 24-year-old man for sedition over his social media posts, including some which called for independence.
Police said the man arrested on Thursday had also allegedly posted messages from November to December last year inciting others to subvert the Hong Kong and central governments, inciting hatred against the judiciary, and urging a boycott of pandemic measures.
Police said the device used for posting seditious content online was found at the man’s home. He is being held in custody.
Sedition is not covered by the Beijing-imposed national security law, which targets secession, subversion, collusion with foreign forces and terrorist acts and mandates up to life imprisonment. Those convicted under the sedition law – last amended in the 1970s when Hong Kong was still a British colony – face a maximum penalty of two years in prison.
In a separate case, a delivery worker who pleaded guilty to sedition over social media posts was jailed for eight months on Thursday.
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