Hong Kong national security law: first minors convicted under legislation among defendants from pro-independence group admitting call for ‘armed revolution’
- Secondary student Wan Chung-wai, who was 15 at the time of her arrest, is the youngest among convicted members of the now-defunct Returning Valiant
- Prosecutor says group made repeated calls on Instagram and Facebook urging followers to seize every opportunity to stage uprising
Five teenagers are among six members of a pro-independence group in Hong Kong who have admitted calling on others to start an “armed revolution” to topple the local and state governments, in the first case of minors convicted of charges under the national security law.
A judge approved by the city’s leader to adjudicate national security proceedings found the six guilty of a joint count of conspiracy to incite subversion of state power upon their own confession at the District Court on Saturday.
The six from the now-defunct Returning Valiant group comprised five secondary school pupils – Wan Chung-wai, 16, Yuen Ka-him, Leung Yung-wan and Tseung Chau Ching-yu, all 17, and Kwok Man-hei, 19 – and salesman Chris Chan Yau-tsun, 26.
Wan, who was only 15 at the time of her arrest, is the youngest defendant to date to be convicted of a national security law offence.
A seventh member, 21-year-old shopkeeper Choi Wing-kit, who previously indicated his intention to admit liability, asked for extra time to affirm the content of the prosecution’s summary of the case.