2024-04-11 17:44:13
Hong Kong justice this Thursday sentenced Portuguese Joseph John to five years in prison for the crime of inciting subversion, in the first national security case to involve a defendant with dual nationality.
At the Wanchai District Court, Judge Ernest Lin Kam Hung found that Joseph John was part of “a dangerous conspiracy” to “separate Hong Kong from China” and “violently change the political regime” in the city.
Even so, the judge sentenced Joseph John to the minimum sentence for inciting subversion, a crime whose maximum sentence is 10 years, because the Portuguese cooperated with the police by sharing his cell phone password.
Joseph John has been detained since the end of October 2022 and, after reading the sentence, the defense confirmed to Lusa that the period of preventive detention will be included in serving the sentence, meaning the defendant will be able to go free at the end of 2027 .
The prosecution had asked for a heavier sentence, recalling that the employee of the Royal College of Music, in the United Kingdom, returned to visit his mother, who was ill, and not to hand himself in, having used his Portuguese passport instead of his card. permanent resident of Hong Kong, so as not to be detected.
The judge highlighted that in the passport of Joseph John, born in Hong Kong, the place of birth appears as being in the United Kingdom, and raised the possibility that the defendant had lied to the Portuguese authorities.
Between July 2020 and November 2022, Joseph John made 42 posts on the social media profiles and website of the Hong Kong Independence Party (HKIP), of which he was one of the administrators.
Hong Kong. Portuguese man detained for “inciting violence” against the government
Defendant will have appealed to send troops
The organization was founded in the United Kingdom in 2015, but the British electoral commission revoked its political party status in 2018.
In the publications, Joseph John launched “a fundraising campaign for military expenses”, said the indictment.
The defendant asked London to declare that China was “illegally occupying” Hong Kong, as well as calling on the United Kingdom and the United States to send troops to the former British colony, whose control passed to Beijing in 1997.
Joseph John also defended “an invasion” of the neighboring city of Shenzhen, to free 12 pro-democracy activists from Hong Kong, accused of “illegal crossing” of waters from mainland China, a group that included Kok Tsz-Lun, with dual Portuguese and Chinese.
The judge said that the publications “were not a mere exercise of freedom of expression, but rather a call for criminal action”, which could have convinced HKIP’s thousand followers on social media “that the Hong Kong independence movement had support from abroad ”.
Ernest Lin is one of the judges appointed by the Hong Kong government to handle cases linked to the national security law enacted in 2020 by Beijing to put an end to dissent in the semi-autonomous Chinese region.
This Thursday’s session was attended by the consul general of Portugal in Macau and Hong Kong, Alexandre Leitão, and a representative of the European Union Delegation in Hong Kong.
Joseph John, also known as Wong Kin Chung, reportedly requested safe conduct to travel to the interior of China.
China does not recognize dual nationality and only grants safe conduct to people of Chinese ethnicity, considering that this document serves as recognition of Chinese nationality.
2024-04-11 17:44:13