Five boys belonging to an anti-China independence group, «Returning Valiant», have been arrested. They are the first minors arrested for protests in Hong Kong
Five teenagers were sentenced to three years in prison, in Hong Kong, on charges of “trying to overthrow the Beijing government”. It is the first time that the Hong Kong National Security Law, introduced by China after the 2019-2020 protests, is being used in court against children under 18.
Many of those who defy the Chinese government have been jailed since the law was introduced, and much of the political opposition has been removed. According to a site search ChinaFile, the law has imprisoned – since it came into force, until March 2022 – 183 opponents: demonstrators, activists, former parliamentarians but not only. Among the latest arrested, the nonagenary Catholic cardinal Joseph Zen. Now the boys.
The court ruled that the defendants had used social media and street pickets to support a “bloody revolution” and overthrow the Chinese state in the former British colony. The teenagers – now aged between 16 and 19, all minors at the time – were members of Returning Valiant, a pro-Hong Kong independence group. They will be locked up in a youth detention facility instead of going to jail, and the length of their sentence it was limited to “only” three years, which will be discounted in whole or in part also at the discretion of the authorities. The case also involves two adults, who will be tried next month.
October 9, 2022 (change October 9, 2022 | 11:55)
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