Advertisement
Hong Kong courts
Hong KongLaw and Crime

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

Reading Time:2 minutes
Why you can trust SCMP
12
A general view of West Kowloon Law Courts Building at Sham Shui Po. Photo: Jelly Tse
Brian Wong
A 26-year old man has been jailed for three months under a colonial-era sedition law for wearing a T-shirt that called for Hong Kong’s “liberation”.
The city’s top magistrate told West Kowloon Court on Wednesday that Chu Kai-pong’s offensive conduct at the city’s airport risked revitalising the 2019 anti-government protests, which subsided after Beijing’s imposition of the national security law in June the following year.

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.

Advertisement