The company behind the now-defunct Stand News portal can face a sedition trial without a representative in court, after a Hong Kong magistrate found it had failed to appoint a proxy despite police efforts to notify it of the proceedings. Best Pencil HK Ltd, the holding company of the opposition-leaning online news platform, was unrepresented in Friday’s hearing at West Kowloon Court even though police twice visited its Kwun Tong office earlier in the month to invite a representative to attend. The company was charged last December alongside two of its top editors with conspiracy to publish seditious content under the colonial-era sedition law, but it neither appointed a proxy nor sent a lawyer to court in the previous sitting. The maximum penalty for the offence is two years’ imprisonment. Hong Kong’s Stand News shuts down after 7 held, assets frozen Prosecutor Laura Ng Shuk-kuen said the justice department would arrange for the case to be tried before the District Court and asked for time to prepare for the procedure. She said the case could proceed in the absence of the company’s representatives because police had done what they could to ask the firm to respond to the allegation in court. The court heard that police had twice knocked on the door of Stand News’ Kwun Tong office earlier this month, but received no response on both occasions. “We believe we have fulfilled the requirement to deliver the notice of hearing to the accused,” the prosecutor said. Acting chief magistrate Peter Law Tak-chuen agreed with the contention and set the next hearing for April 13, when the court will handle matters related to the case’s transfer. Also absent from the dock on Friday were former editor-in-chief Chung Pui-kuen, 52, and acting editor-in-chief Patrick Lam Shiu-tung, 34, as the prison service has locked down all correctional institutions to test inmates and detainees for Covid-19. Lawyers representing the pair raised no objections to having the trial heard at the District Court. In a separate case heard before the same court on Friday, two women accused of posting messages online calling on people to flout anti-pandemic measures and avoid receiving Covid-19 vaccines were remanded in custody, after prosecutors charged them with committing an act or acts with a seditious intent. Hong Kong police arrest owners of Taiwanese drinks shop over social media posts The two women, Hau Wing-yan, 24, and Lam Yuen-yi, 21, are the owners of a Taiwanese drinks shop in Mong Kok which was raided by national security officers on Thursday evening. The pair were charged in connection with 18 posts made on Facebook and Instagram, which prosecutors argued were capable of inciting hatred or contempt towards the government, raising discontent among residents and counselling disobedience to law or to any lawful order. Law, who also oversaw the two women’s case, dismissed their applications for release, saying he had insufficient grounds to believe they would not commit further national security offences. Now in hospital, Hau will make her first appearance in court on March 3 and will return for another session on April 21 with Lam.