HONG KONG, July 29 — A pro-democracy Hong Kong DJ went on trial Thursday for sedition in the first use of the colonial-era law since the city’s handover to China as authorities broaden their criminalisation of dissent.
Better known by his DJ moniker “Fast Beat”, Tam faces eight sedition charges for slogans he either uttered or wrote between January and July last year.At the opening of his trial on Thursday, prosecutors read out those slogans, as well as some pro-democracy speeches Tam gave, often littered with colourful Cantonese curse words.
On Tuesday, a Hong Kong court convicted a former waiter of terrorism and inciting secession in the first trial conducted under the new national security law. By the time of Hong Kong’s 1997 handover, it had not been used for decades and was a largely forgotten relic on the statute books in a city that had become a regional bastion of free speech.