Hong Kong’s former Student Movement Convenor Chung Han-lam has been convicted of two counts of “insulting the national flag”.
The Hong Kong Eastern Magistrates’ Court on Friday (Dec. 11) found Chung guilty of insulting the national flag and unlawful assembly and remanded him to Dec. 29 for sentencing.
Chung was charged with destroying a Chinese flag during a dispute with the pro-China group “Defend Hong Kong Campaign” in the Legislative Council demonstration area last May. The charge stated that Chung took the initiative to grab the five-star flag and broke the flag pole, then threw the flag into the air, which was an intentional act of insult.
The magistrate pointed out in his verdict that the defendant was convicted of insulting the national flag and unlawful assembly because he and others had a common purpose to assemble and act in a disorderly manner in the course of grabbing the five-star flag.
However, Chung denied insulting the national flag and unlawful assembly, saying that he thought the flagpole was immediately dangerous and was afraid that someone would use it to hurt someone, so he threw it away. The magistrate pointed out that after the defendant threw away the five-star flag, he ignored the flag again, reflecting that the defendant did not care who would take the five-star flag on the ground, and therefore did not accept his defense.
Hong Kong’s first conviction for “insulting the national flag” was handed down at the Shatin Magistrates’ Court in late October last year. At that time, the judge in view of the defendant’s 21-year-old man surnamed Luo is a first-time offender, and confessed to the crime, sentenced him to 200 hours of community service, no prison and no fine.
According to Article 299 of China’s Criminal Law, anyone who intentionally insults the national flag or emblem of the People’s Republic of China in public by burning, destroying, defacing, defacing or trampling on it shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not more than three years, detention, control or deprivation of political rights.
In late October, he was allegedly denied entry into the U.S. Consulate to seek asylum, and was subsequently arrested and charged by police with the National Security Act and money laundering.
“Students for Action is a student organization founded by Chung Han-lam after the 2014 Occupy movement, which advocates for Hong Kong’s independence. Chung led members of the group to march in the streets several times during last year’s anti-centralization movement.
When the Hong Kong version of the National Security Law came into force on June 30, Chung announced that Student Action had ceased all local operations, disbanded all members of the organization, and handed over all organizational affairs to Student Action’s overseas branches, and continued to support the promotion of Hong Kong’s independence.
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