By Jessie Pang and Anson Law
HONG KONG (Reuters) – Hong Kong’s top court on Thursday dismissed a bid to overturn the 2022 conviction and sentence of jailed pro-democracy activist Tam Tak-chi under a colonial-era sedition law.
Tam, a former member of the now-disbanded People Power party and also radio host DJ known as “Fast Beat”, was the first Hong Kong person tried on a sedition charge since the city’s handover from British to Chinese rule in 1997.
His case is also the first time the top court has heard an appeal against the colonial-era sedition law.
The five judges said in a ruling that “the prosecution was not required to establish that the words uttered by the appellant were intended to incite violence or public disorder”.
Tam did not appear in court on Thursday but made several Facebook posts.
“Knowing that it was impossible, I still walked to the end of this road all the way to the Court of Final Appeal. This is the cross I had to bear,” Tam said.
“Although I’ve been in jail for four years, I can still bear it. The ones who are really suffering are regular people, and Hong Kong’s freedoms and democracy.”
Tam’s lawyer, Philip Dykes, earlier cited a statement by Gandhi in his sedition trial in 1922 and argued that people should enjoy the freedom to express disaffection against a person or system as long as they did not incite violence.
“Affection cannot be manufactured or regulated by law. If one has no affection for a person or system, one should be free to give the fullest expression to his disaffection, so long as he does not contemplate, promote or incite to violence,” Dykes said, quoting Gandhi’s statement.
Tam was sentenced to 40 months jail in 2022 by District Court Judge Stanley Chan on a total of 11 charges that included uttering seditious words such as “Liberate Hong Kong, Revolution of our Times”, public disorder and incitement to take part in an unauthorised assembly.
Hong Kong passed a home-grown national security law (Article 23) last March. The law stiffened penalties for sedition up to seven years in jail and a maximum of 10 years if the act involves collusion with an “external force”.
Critics including the U.S. have criticised the law and said the vague provisions on “sedition” could be used to curb dissent.
Hong Kong and Chinese officials say the new law is necessary to plug “loopholes” in the national security regime.
(Reporting by Jessie Pang and Anson Law; Editing by James Pomfret and Michael Perry)
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