(EFE). A popular Hong Kong radio host was sentenced on Wednesday to 40 months in prison on charges such as “publishing seditious speech”, in a case that has raised concerns about its implications for the future of free speech in a village.
Tam Tak Chi, 49, was facing a total of 14 charges in 2020, including “speaking inflammatory words” under a British colonial-era law rarely used in Hong Kong anymore.
Last month, Tamm was already convicted on 11 out of 14 charges, including one for participating in or calling for unauthorized demonstrations by the police.
In the past month, Tamm has already been found guilty of 11 out of 14 counts, including one for participating in or calling for unauthorized demonstrations by the police. The broadcaster has been detained since his arrest in September 2020.
The Hong Kong court ruled that Tam must also pay a fine of HK$5,000 (about US$640) and criticized him for “had to take into account the political reality” in which the events took place, such as “the unprecedented violent events who were disturbing the peace.” social in the city.
Defense lawyers claimed that the broadcaster was simply exploding with momentum and that he engaged in pro-democracy activism in Hong Kong in the hope that Hong Kong could achieve a more open political system.
However, the judge cited several radio appearances insulting the police, concluding that the defendant, who is also a former vice president of the radical political party, People’s Power, “verbally abused others.”
The court added that Tam publicly chanted the now-banned popular protest slogan “Free Hong Kong, Revolution of Our Time” 171 times. So do slogans such as “Down with the Chinese Communist Party.”
Tam chanted the popular protest slogan “Free Hong Kong, Revolution of Our Time” 171 times. As well as slogans such as “Down with the Chinese Communist Party”
The sedition law under which Tam was first sentenced was drafted by the British colonial government in 1938 and has long been criticized in Hong Kong as a law against free speech.
Since anti-government protests rocked the city in 2019, Beijing has tightened its grip on the former British colony, drafting and enforcing the National Security Act in 2020, which virtually eliminated any prospect of political dissent and led to a wave of arrests and serious setbacks, according to Amnesty International. With regard to human rights.
In 2021, more than fifty organizations in Hong Kong decided to dissolve them to reduce the risk of their members being accused of any of the controversial assumptions of the law, while many activists went into exile or were arrested and imprisoned.
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