Hong Kong man, 26, jailed for three months for wearing seditious T-shirt at airport
- Chu Kai-pong detained for wearing shirt with ‘Free Hong Kong. Liberate Hong Kong; revolution of our times’ as he waited to board flight to Taiwan
- City’s top magistrate tells court that defendant’s conduct risked a revitalisation of 2019 anti-government protests
Chief Magistrate Victor So Wai-tak, hand-picked by the city’s leader to hear national security cases, said Chu had flouted the law and showed no concern over walking about in public wearing clothing bearing the seditious slogan.
He jailed Chu for three months for wearing the T-shirt and an additional two months for possession of other offensive items, but ordered the terms to run concurrently.
Chu, said in court to be unemployed, was arrested on November 27 last year after he was spotted wearing a black, long-sleeved shirt, emblazoned with the slogan “Free Hong Kong. Liberate Hong Kong; revolution of our times”, as he went through airport security to board a flight to Taiwan.
Airport police stopped Chu near the boarding gate and found additional offensive items, including a “Hong Kong Independence” T-shirt and two black flags that called for a “revolution”.
A photograph that showed him holding a similar flag against the backdrop of the Taipei 101 skyscraper was submitted to the court.
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The court heard Chu told police after he was detained at the airport that he had worn the T-shirt in an attempt to get public recognition of his views.
He said the calls for Hong Kong’s liberation and revolution were intended to galvanise people into the separation of Hong Kong from mainland Chinese rule through the adoption of “substantive actions” similar to those seen in the social unrest five years ago.
Chu pleaded guilty last week to acting with seditious intent and to possession of seditious publications.
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Both offences are punishable by up to two years in prison for a first conviction under the Crimes Ordinance.
Authorities have taken steps to ban the public display and dissemination of the slogan “Liberate Hong Kong; revolution of our times”, popular during the 2019 protests, since the Beijing-imposed national security law came into force in 2020.
The law outlawed acts of secession, subversion, terrorism and collusion with foreign forces.
