Hong Kong retiree jailed for 8 months over seditious Facebook posts

2026-03-01 - 23:25

A Hong Kong court has sentenced a 68-year-old retiree to eight months in jail for sedition under the city’s homegrown security law, after the man published more than 100 Facebook posts criticising authorities and calling for a boycott of last year’s legislative polls. West Kowloon Law Courts Building. File photo: Kyle Lam/HKFP. Lam Chung-ming pleaded guilty on Friday to one count of “knowingly publishing publications that had a seditious intention” under the Safeguarding National Security Ordinance – known locally as Article 23 – according to local media reports. He admitted to publishing 130 seditious posts on Facebook between September 2024 and November last year, telling police after his arrest that he made the remarks “for the country, including all the criticism.” Prosecutors accused Lam of inciting hatred against police, the judiciary and government officials, as well as inciting a boycott of the “patriots only” legislative elections in his Facebook posts. According to the prosecution, some of his posts contained references such as “black cops” and “black judges” – with “black” alluding to corruption. The court heard that Lam graduated from the Chinese University of Hong Kong in 1981 and worked as a translator, including for multiple government departments. Between 1988 and 1989, he was a translator for the drafting committee of the Basic Law, Hong Kong’s mini-constitution. Lam had reflected upon his online criticism after his arrest and spoke to “police officers in real life” for the first time, his lawyer said, pleading for leniency. A Tai Po polling station for the 2025 LegCo elections, on December 7, 2025. Photo: Kyle Lam/HKFP. He realised he had harboured hatred towards the authorities stemming from prevalent sentiment on the internet, his lawyer said, calling Lam’s posts “irrational rantings of a stubborn old man.” Lam’s Facebook account had only about a dozen friends and each post received little reaction, his lawyer added, reflecting the limited impact of Lam’s posts. Protest slogan Chief Magistrate Victor So, however, said Lam’s offence spanned 14 months, averaging 11 posts per month, showing the consistency of his behaviour. So added that, on 14 occasions, Lam’s posts mentioned “Liberate Hong Kong, revolution of our times,” a slogan from the 2019 protests and unrest that was deemed “capable of inciting secession” in a 2021 court ruling. So dismissed the defence’s mitigation pleas, saying Lam had stoked hatred against authorities by making unfounded allegations and referencing the 2019 unrest. He set the starting sentence at 15 months behind bars, giving a one-third remission for Lam’s guilty plea and a further reduction of two months for his good character. Hong Kong lawmakers and government officials gather for a group photo after the passing of Article 23, the city’s new security law, on March 19, 2024. File photo: Kyle Lam/HKFP. Separate from the 2020 Beijing-enacted security law, the homegrown Safeguarding National Security Ordinance targets treason, insurrection, sabotage, external interference, sedition, theft of state secrets and espionage. It allows for pre-charge detention of up to 16 days, and suspects’ access to lawyers may be restricted, with penalties involving up to life in prison. Article 23 was shelved in 2003 amid mass protests, remaining taboo for years. But, on March 23, 2024, it was enacted having been fast-tracked and unanimously approved at the city’s opposition-free legislature. The law has been criticised by rights NGOs, Western states and the UN as vague, broad and “regressive.” Authorities, however, cited perceived foreign interference and a constitutional duty to “close loopholes” after the 2019 protests and unrest.