Hong Kong handyman sentenced to 1 year in jail for seditious social media posts
Chow Kim-ho pleads guilty to one count of knowingly publishing seditious publications under Safeguarding National Security Ordinance
A Hong Kong court has sentenced a handyman to one year in prison for posting seditious messages on his social media accounts to incite hatred towards central and local authorities.
Chow Kim-ho, 57, on Tuesday pleaded guilty to one count of knowingly publishing seditious publications under the Safeguarding National Security Ordinance, which was passed by lawmakers in March of last year.
A source earlier said the defendant was a former member of the League of Social Democrats opposition party.
He admitted to publishing 145 seditious posts on Facebook, Instagram and Threads, involving content intended to incite hatred towards the Communist Party of China and the Hong Kong government.
Chow told police that he had reposted news articles, photos and videos on his social media accounts between March 26 and November 12 last year, with the content including comments from himself that were intended to “let off some steam”.
In posts about the country’s ruling party, he said that “its fall in history was bound to happen”. Other remarks targeted Hong Kong authorities or discussed the possibility of a war between Taiwan and mainland China.
During sentencing, Chief Magistrate So Wai-tak of West Kowloon Court said Chow’s frequent reposting of seditious material, which could easily be viewed by the public, “set a tone” that focused on overthrowing the central government.