A Hong Kong court has sentenced a 19-year-old woman to a year in prison for promoting a self-styled parliament-in-exile in Canada in breach of the domestic national security law.West Kowloon Court on Thursday sentenced Bettie Lan Fei on a count of sedition for rallying support for the election of a so-called Hong Kong Parliament that sought to topple the city government and eliminate the Communist Party of China.
Chief Magistrate Victor So Wai-tak said the defendant had contributed materially to the dissemination of the political group’s radical and ill-conceived objectives by filming two promotional videos and encouraging a friend to vote in the election.
So, who is among the few jurists hand-picked by the city leader to adjudicate national security proceedings, also weighed in on the group’s illegality, saying it inflamed opposition to the Communist Party’s sovereignty and authority over Hong Kong and provoked lasting hostility towards the regime.
“The entities concerned were established as foreign bases, with the purpose of propagating hostile sentiments and opposition to the People’s Republic of China on a global scale,” he said.
“The entire operation was designed to disseminate distorted portrayals of Chinese sovereignty and of [Hong Kong] within the international community, to malign the Chinese authority and to mislead foreign states and their citizens into accepting extremist ideology.”
