National security law: Hong Kong’s self-styled ‘Captain America’ jailed for nearly 6 years for inciting secession

Adam Ma sentenced for chanting pro-independence slogans during anti-government protests

Judge rejected defence claims that former food delivery worker had merely been testing limits of new legislation

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Adam Ma addresses reporters at a Mong Kok shopping centre in October 2020. Photo: Brian Wong

Published: 4:12pm, 11 Nov 2021Updated: 10:54pm, 11 Nov 2021

A former food delivery worker has been jailed for five years and nine months under Hong Kong’s national security law for inciting secession by chanting pro-independence slogans at protests and advocating the stance in interviews.

Adam Ma Chun-man returned before the District Court on Thursday, two weeks after he was convicted by a judge hand-picked by city leader Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor to oversee proceedings stemming from the Beijing-imposed legislation.

The 31-year-old had called himself a “second-generation Captain America”, in reference to a prominent protester dressed as the superhero during the 2014 Occupy movement and the Mong Kok riot in 2016.

Lawyers for Adam Ma argued he was only trying to test the limits of the national security law with his public statements. Photo: Facebook

Explaining the sentence, Judge Stanley Chan Kwong-chi said he found the security law violation serious enough to warrant at least five years behind bars, as the defendant repeatedly incited others to separate Hong Kong from China and failed to display even “the least bit of remorse” – something Ma himself acknowledged.

Chan tacked on even more time to reflect Ma “wantonly denigrating the national security law” and “misleading others into thinking he did not break the law with his nonsense”.

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