Hong Kong:

A senior Hong Kong judge sided with the government on Friday and dismissed the first legal challenge to the city’s newly enacted national security law, which had been brought by a jailed protester.

Ma Chun-man — known as “Captain America 2.0” for carrying a replica of the Marvel superhero’s shield during democracy rallies in 2019 — was imprisoned for “inciting secession” under a national security law imposed by Beijing in 2020.

He had hoped to receive a one-third sentence remission — typically granted to inmates for good behaviour — and be released in March.

But the passage of another national security law this year effectively banned remission for people convicted of national security crimes, and Ma’s request for early release was denied.

Ma challenged the decision, but on Friday the court said the new system was “sufficiently precise and certain”.

“There is no question of Mr Ma being subject to any additional or heavier penalty by operation” of the new rules, High Court judge Alex Lee ruled.

“The applicant’s substantive judicial review is dismissed,” said Lee, who is among a pool of jurists selected by Hong Kong’s leader to hear security cases.

Both of Hong Kong’s national security laws have been criticised by Western nations such as the United States for quashing dissent and curtailing freedoms in the city.

Hong Kong authorities have defended the laws as necessary to restore order following the huge and sometimes violent pro-democracy protests in 2019.

Under the second law, national security prisoners are now “not entitled to remission”, city leader John Lee has said, with the rule change covering those already serving time.

An exception can be made only if Hong Kong’s prison chief is satisfied that an early release would not be contrary to national security interests.

Ma’s lawyers argued that the definition of “interests of national security” was too vague.

But government lawyers responded that “national security is really a constantly evolving concept… not capable of being inflexibly defined”.

Ma, a former food delivery worker, was sentenced to nearly six years in jail after being found guilty of “inciting secession” by chanting Hong Kong independence slogans, an offence under the first national security law.

The sentence was reduced to five years after a successful appeal in 2022.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Around 390,000 of Hong Kong’s 7.5 million people are Catholic. File.
| Photo Credit: AFP

The Catholic Church in Hong Kong said on March 15 that confessions by devotees to priests would remain confidential under the city’s upcoming national security law.

Hong Kong is fast-tracking a homegrown national security law, following the one Beijing imposed in 2020 after quashing huge and sometimes violent pro-democracy protests.

The government bill — expected to be put to a legislature vote within days — proposes a maximum jail term of 14 years for any person who knows that someone will commit treason but fails to report it to the police.

The Catholic Diocese of Hong Kong said in a statement Friday that it “recognises that citizens have an obligation to ensure national security”.

But the security law “will not alter the confidential nature of Confession”, the diocese added.

The diocese had “expressed its views” on the legislation, but told AFP that it did not intend to make those views public.

UK-based activist group Hong Kong Watch earlier said the offence “directly threatens religious freedom” as it would force priests to reveal what was said in the confessional booth against their conscience.

The former British colony is a common law jurisdiction and has a legal system distinct from mainland China.

Hong Kong authorities defended the proposed criminal offence — which used to be called “misprision of treason” — saying that it had long existed in the city and other common law countries.

Responding to a lawmaker’s question last week, Secretary for Justice Paul Lam said it would be “very difficult to create exceptions” for people like clergy and social workers regarding the offence.

The government has said the measure “has nothing to do with freedom of religion”.

Hong Kong officials conducted a month-long public consultation on the security law and the subsequent legislative vetting took less than a week.

Around 390,000 of Hong Kong’s 7.5 million people are Catholic, according to the diocese, and notable devotees include two former city leaders.