A 26-year-old man has been charged by national security police over allegedly wearing “seditious” clothes at Hong Kong’s international airport.
According to a government statement issued on Wednesday, the man was arrested at the airport on Monday after police “sped to the scene.” He was charged on Wednesday with “doing an act or acts with seditious intention” and “possessing seditious publications” under the colonial-era sedition law, and with having another person’s identity card.
Chu Kai-poon, unemployed, appeared at West Kowloon Magistrates’ Courts on Wednesday afternoon. According to the charge sheet, he was arrested near a boarding gate at the airport.
The prosecution applied to adjourn the case for further investigations into the defendant’s phone and social media accounts.
Chu was denied bail and will be remanded in custody until he is next due in court on January 4.
Those convicted under the sedition law face up to two years in prison.
‘Seditious’ shirt
The government said that the police received reports on Monday afternoon that a man at the airport was wearing a shirt with “seditious wording.”
“Police officers sped to the scene and further seized some flags and clothing with seditious wording, as well as an identity card relating to another person from his personal belongings, ” the statement read.
Local media citing sources reported that the man was wearing a T-shirt with the phrases “Liberate Hong Kong, revolution of our times” and “Hong Kong independence is the only way out” on it.
Police also found three flags with the slogan “Liberate Hong Kong, revolution of our times” printed on them on him.
“Liberate Hong Kong, revolution of our times” was a popular slogan during the 2019 pro-democracy protests.
On July 2, 2020, just two days after the national security law came into force, the government said in a statement that the slogan was pro-independence, secessionist and subversive, and therefore criminalised under the new legislation. During the city’s first national security trial in July 2021, the court ruled that the slogan was capable of inciting secession.
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.
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