A Hong Kong courtroom has sentenced 5 speech therapists to almost two years in jail for his or her function within the publication of youngsters’s books deemed seditious.
The penalties are the most recent signal of China’s arduous line in opposition to free speech and any signal of political opposition within the metropolis following the 2019 anti-government protests.
Beijing responded to the months-long demonstrations by imposing a sweeping Nationwide Safety Legislation and disqualifying, imprisoning or silencing political opponents, a lot of whom have sought asylum overseas.
The 5 defendants have already been jailed for greater than a 12 months and could also be eligible for early launch underneath the phrases of the 19-month sentence handed down on Saturday.
That they had pleaded not responsible however have been convicted of sedition on Wednesday after they printed a collection of youngsters’s books about sheep and wolves {that a} courtroom mentioned was aimed toward inciting hatred in opposition to authorities.
The clampdown has led to criticism that China’s ruling Communist Occasion has reneged on a 1997 pledge when Hong Kong was handed over from Britain to China to retain town’s western-style freedoms – together with free speech.
Hong Kong authorities have purged and imprisoned politicians and lecturers related to the pro-democracy camp, shut down newspapers and pulled publications and artworks seen as vital of the Communist Occasion, which brooks no opposition.
Current days have additionally seen the arrest of Ronson Chan, chairman of the Hong Kong Journalists Affiliation, for allegedly refusing to offer identification whereas reporting a information story about housing.
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