Hong Kong commentator facing up to 7 years in jail in seditious posts case
Magistrate grants prosecutors’ request to transfer case of Wong Kwok-ngon, known by pen name Wong On-yin, to higher District Court
A Hong Kong news commentator faces up to seven years in jail if convicted of posting seditious content online, including comments about the deadly Tai Po fire, after his case was transferred to the higher District Court.
Chief Magistrate Victor So Wai-tak on Monday granted prosecutors’ request to move Wong Kwok-ngon’s sedition case from West Kowloon Court to the District Court, where the maximum sentence is capped at seven years. Sentences at the magistrates’ courts are generally limited to two years.
Wong, 71, known by his pen name Wong On-yin, allegedly posted hundreds of seditious videos between January 3 and December 6 last year on his YouTube channel, including some with remarks about the Wang Fuk Court blaze that killed 168 people last November.
He has been charged with knowingly publishing seditious publications, an offence punishable by a maximum jail term of seven years.
Wong is also the first person to be prosecuted for allegedly prejudicing an investigation into national security offences, after being accused of unlawfully divulging details of his meeting with national security police on December 3 on his channel.
A source earlier said Wong had been a writer for the now-defunct tabloid Apple Daily and deputy convenor of the disbanded Civil Human Rights Front.