Opinion | National security trial ruling a setback for human rights in Hong Kong

Name: First person convicted under Hong Kong’s national security law jailed for 9 years
Uploaded: 2021-08-03T20:00:16.000Z
Duration: 1 min 43 s
Description: First person convicted under Hong Kong’s national security law jailed for 9 years

Under the standard applied, just about any slogan that might possibly bear a meaning that is prohibited could then be judged unlawful and result in jail time

Pursuing the charge of grievous bodily harm rather than terrorism would have been supported by the evidence and not caused fears over human rights in Hong Kong

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A flyer lies on the ground in support of Leon Tong Ying-kit, the first person convicted under the Hong Kong national security law, near the High Court in Hong Kong on July 30. Tong was sentenced to nine years in prison for driving his motorcycle into a group of police officers last year while flying a flag calling for the city’s “liberation”. Photo: EPA-EFE

Michael C. Davis

Published: 4:00am, 4 Aug 2021Updated: 4:31am, 4 Aug 2021

While media coverage has focused mostly on the lengthy nine-year sentence handed Leon Tong Ying-kit before three designated judges this week, more worrying is the analysis within the verdict.

Human rights and the rule of law clearly took a dramatic step backwards in that judgment, convicting Tong of inciting secession with no mention of human rights and of terrorism with little regard for his causing popular fear. A third charge related to grievous bodily harm by dangerous driving was not pursued by the government.

Tong was charged for his acts on July 1, 2020 – the first full day under the new national security law – when he drove his motorcycle on the streets displaying a flag bearing the widely used slogan “Liberate Hong Kong, revolution of our times”. During the 2019 protests, this slogan was commonly used along with “Five demands, not one less” to stir up passion for the movement.

He ran through several police cordons before hitting and injuring three police officers, though their injuries were not serious. The charge of secession was based mostly on the political slogan. The terrorism conviction paired the injuries caused plus the political purpose of his actions.

We were told in the judgment that intent to incite secession – being the independence or splitting of Hong Kong from China – is sufficient, without regard to the consequence.

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First person convicted under Hong Kong’s national security law jailed for 9 years

Despite the guarantees in Article 39 of the Basic Law that incorporate the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and even the guarantee in Article 4 of the Hong Kong national security law itself that “human rights shall be respected and protected in safeguarding national security”, expressly including application of the ICCPR, human rights were not mentioned in the judgment. This is extraordinary given the careful attention worldwide specifically to human rights in cases where free speech guarantees are implicated in national security prosecutions.

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