Hong Kong Jails Activist for 3 Years, 7 Months in Secession Case

(Bloomberg) -- Hong Kong jailed a student activist for three years and seven months after pleading guilty to secession, as authorities use a Beijing-drafted national security law to crack down on political dissent.  

Tony Chung, 20, had faced as many as seven years in prison after pleading guilty earlier this month to seeking to separate Hong Kong from mainland China between July and October 2020. 

That guilty plea made Chung the third person to avoid fighting his case under the vaguely worded national security law. It was part of a deal struck with prosecutors that included submitting to money laundering charges relating to HK$133,000 ($17,000). 

The District Court on Tuesday sentenced him to three years and four months for the first charge of secession, with 18 months for money laundering, Hong Kong Free Press reported. Three months would be served non-concurrently, giving him a total sentence of 43 months. 

“Even though the defendant did not have concrete plans to split the country, his goal was very much clear,” Judge Stanley Chan said, according to the local news outlet. He added that the charge of secession “does not require actual plans,” according to the publication.

The court heard that Chung had published seditious messages on social media and held events with secessionist intent, according to local news outlet Radio Television Hong Kong.

Chung, the youngest person to be convicted under the security law, received the lightest sentence of the three handed down so far. Tong Ying-kit and Ma Chun-man both pled not guilty and received 9 years and 5 years and 9 months, respectively. 

The latest sentence will add to concerns that the security law imposed by Beijing in June 2020, in the wake of the previous year’s anti-government protests, is being used to crack down on political opposition. Hong Kong has sought to prosecute some 100 pro-democracy activists and former opposition lawmakers under the legislation, with about 85% of those cases involving speech-related crimes. 

Hong Kong’s Chief Executive Carrie Lam has credited the law for bringing stability to the Asian city but it has been criticized by Western governments for rolling back freedoms promised under the city’s mini-constitution, the Basic Law.

Chung, a former convener of Studentlocalism, was detained in October 2020 at a coffee shop opposite the U.S. consulate, where he had been planning to seek asylum. Days later, he was charged under the security law on suspicion of secession. 

©2021 Bloomberg L.P.