Hong Kong: Five jailed in for 'seditious' children's books
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Loading... - Jack Knight
- 12 Sep 2022
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Authorities interpreted the books - about sheep trying to hold back wolves from their village - as referring to Hong Kong and the Beijing government.
The authors argued the books chronicled "history from the people's perspective".
But a government-picked judge concluded they were "a brainwashing exercise".
The sentencing comes amid a crackdown on civil liberties since 2020, when China imposed a new national security law.
Beijing said the law was needed to bring stability to the city - but critics said it was designed to squash dissent, and weaken Hong Kong's autonomy.
Hong Kong is a Special Administrative Region of China, and has a "one country, two systems" principle, which is designed to give the city certain freedoms.
The five speech therapists - Lai Man-ling, Melody Yeung, Sidney Ng, Samuel Chan and Fong Tsz-ho - have already spent more than a year in jail awaiting the verdict.
One of their lawyers said they could be released within a month, because of the time already served.
The group, who are aged between 25 and 28, produced cartoon e-books that some interpreted as trying to explain Hong Kong's pro-democracy movement to children. Read More…
