Tam Tak-chi was sentenced for sedition
(Picture: REUTERS)A Hong Kong court has jailed a DJ for “uttering seditious” words in the latest crackdown on civil liberties in the region.
Tam Tak-chi, was given 40 months in jail after he was found guilty of 11 out of 14 charges against him last month.
Tam, who was the first person to be charged with sedition since 1997 - although up to 20 people are now awaiting trial - was also fined $5,000 (£489).
The 50-year-old former vice-chair of the People Power party has been in jail since 2020 when he was arrested.
Tam was sentenced by judge Stanley Chan, who was picked by Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam to handle national security cases.
The journalist and lecturer was a former columnist for Stand News, an online platform which was closed last December after authorities froze the company’s assets.
Although sedition was introduced during British rule, it has become more widely used by the government in tandem with the controversial security law.
Under the security law, the government has powers to criminalise any act of subversion, secession, terrorism or collusion with foreign or external forces.
Last summer, Hong Kong’s last pro-democracy paper, Apple Daily, announced its closure following allegations that several reporters had breached the security law.
The publication had long been a critic of the Hong Kong and Chinese leadership while its founder, Jimmy Lai, was sentenced to 13 months in prison for participating in a vigil to mark the 1989 Tiananmen massacre.
Last month Hong Kong police also threatened the leader of a UK-based human rights watchdog with jail.
Hong Kong Watch was accused of colluding with foreign forces and was ordered to take down its website, the organisation’s chief executive Benedict Rogers said in a statement.
