The Hong Kong city skyline. Picture: 123RF/SEAN PAVONE
Judge Stanley Chan had been scheduled to hand down the sentence earlier on Thursday, but pushed back the hearing until the afternoon, saying its high-profile nature meant the court needed more time. Both national security trials have centred on defendants’ use of political slogans, adding to fears that freedom of speech is being eroded in the former British colony despite being guaranteed in the security law and the city’s mini-constitution, the Basic Law. Speech-related crimes account for 85% of the 100 cases the government has sought to prosecute under the law, according to data compiled by Bloomberg News.
During Ma’s four-day trial, prosecutors said he had flouted the security law by claiming calling for Hong Kong independence was his constitutional right, the South China Morning Post newspaper reported. It was irrelevant whether the people who said or heard the banned words intended to carry out secession, the court ruled in a summary published after the conviction.
Hong Kong’s leader, CEO Carrie Lam, has credited the law for bringing stability to the Asian financial hub, but it has been criticised by Western governments for rolling back freedoms promised under the Sino-British Joint Declaration. That Beijing-signed document guaranteed the former British colony a “high degree of autonomy” for 50 years, after it was returned to Chinese rule in 1997.
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