Hong Kong court rejects jailed opposition activist Tam Tak-chi’s appeal against colonial-era sedition charges

Hong Kong’s Court of Appeal has rejected overturning the conviction of a former opposition activist found guilty of seven counts of uttering seditious words under a colonial-era law.

In a 100-page judgment handed down on Thursday dismissing the appeal brought by 51-year-old Tam Tak-chi, the three judges concluded that the law should adopt a broad interpretation of seditious intention even when violence was not inflicted.

Tam, former vice-chairman of the now-disbanded People Power party, had argued that his chanting of slogans promoting liberating Hong Kong and dissolution of the force in 2020 did not equate to having an intention to incite violence. Therefore, the sedition charges had “disproportionately” restricted his freedom of speech and action.

However, the appeal court ruled that seditious intention of the act of speech does not require proving whether those words resulted in violence, while adding that the interpretation of such intention should be read in relation to the sociopolitical context.

“To achieve the [legislative] purpose and to enable the [legislation] to timely and effectively respond to seditious acts or activities endangering national security, seditious intention has to be broadly framed to encompass a myriad of situations that may arise in different and changing circumstances,” the judges wrote.

Tam is the first person to be tried on sedition charges under Crimes Ordinance sections 9 and 10 since Hong Kong returned to Chinese sovereignty in 1997. The legislation was passed in 1938 and amended in 1970.