HONG KONG -- A Hong Kong man was found guilty of inciting secession on Monday for chanting slogans and displaying signs seen as advocating the city's independence from China in the second trial under the national security law imposed last year by Beijing.
Ma Chun-man, 30, faces up to seven years' imprisonment for his activities on 20 occasions between August and November 2020 in a case seen as a litmus test for freedom of speech in the city. He will be sentenced on Nov. 11.
Judge Stanley Chan said on Monday that Ma's words were "sincere and heartfelt" and that he had acted like a "human recorder" in repeating political statements. This showed that his words were not "fake and empty" and that he had a "clear political intention" to incite secession.
"He seems to think that he has a political mission to implement someone's political propositions, to promote Hong Kong people to believe in Hong Kong independence, and to establish the Hong Kong nation and the Hong Kong Republic," Judge Chan said in his 33-page judgment, which was released only in Chinese.
Critics said afterward that the verdict shows the national security law is being used to limit free speech and criminalize political views that could be seen as anti-government.
"This verdict is not a surprise but is deeply concerning, as it illustrates yet again the severity of the national security law and the total dismantling of freedom of expression in Hong Kong," said Benedict Rogers of Hong Kong Watch, a campaign group based in London.
"Peacefully chanting slogans and making speeches should not be a crime, yet in Hong Kong such actions are a serious violation of the draconian national security law," he added. "Today is yet another very dark day for Hong Kong."
During the four-day proceedings, defense counsel Edwin Choy had argued Ma wanted to prove that civil freedoms were still protected under the national security law and expressed "empty slogans" with no intention to act. Ma had chanted "Hong Kong independence, the only way out" and "Hong Kong people, establish our state."
Police stopped a number of racers in Sunday’s Hong Kong marathon who displayed the slogan "Go, Hong Kong" on their clothes or person, forcing them to cover up. © Reuters Prosecutors, however, said Ma had promoted Hong Kong independence and that his words alone constituted a criminal act.
Ma's conviction comes after a 24-year-old former waiter was sentenced in late July to nine years' imprisonment for inciting secession and acts of terrorism in the city's first national security conviction. The man, Tong Ying-kit, had driven a motorcycle carrying a banner with the slogan "Liberate Hong Kong, Revolution of Our Times" into a line of police, injuring three.
The "Liberate Hong Kong, Revolution of Our Times" phrase, resonant throughout the 2019 anti-government protests, was banned by authorities for having separatist connotations last year. It was among several slogans Ma chanted.
Dozens of pro-democracy activists and opposition lawmakers are either in jail or prison or have fled the city and dozens of civic groups have been pressured to disband. A group of speech therapists have been detained ahead of trial on allegations children's books they created and distributed were seditious. Other activists are facing trial for chanting slogans under a colonial-era sedition law.
So far, 155 people have been arrested and 100 of them charged under the security law.
Against this background, police stopped a number of racers in Sunday's Hong Kong marathon who displayed the slogan "Go, Hong Kong" on their clothes or person, forcing them to cover up.
"It is very hard for us to be optimistic in upcoming trials as free speech in Hong Kong seems unfree now," said Georgetown University Center for Asian Law Fellow Eric Lai.
"It also implies the authorities are limiting a certain form of free speech and certain forms of expression, and [that] a certain form of political belief that is now prohibited in Hong Kong, even if it is done in a peaceful way," Lai said in reference to Monday's verdict.