Hong Kong lays first charges under city’s new security law
Calling for the city’s independence now punishable for life
HONG KONG — In implementing the national security law for Hong Kong, police will have sweeping authority that allows them to take actions including conducting searches without a warrant, restricting suspects from leaving the city, and intercepting communications.
Hong Kong’s government issued the details of Article 43 in the city’s national security law on Monday night, which outlines the measures that the police force can take to implement the legislation in the city.
According to the rules, police may be authorized to conduct searches for evidence without a warrant in “exceptional circumstances.” Police may also apply for a warrant that requires a person suspected of violating the national security law to surrender their travel documents, thus restricting them from leaving Hong Kong.
Additionally, under the rules, written notices or restraining orders may be issued to freeze or confiscate property if there are “reasonable grounds” to suspect that the property is related to an offence endangering national security.
Platforms and publishers, as well as internet service providers, may also be ordered to take down electronic messages published that are “likely to constitute an offence endangering national security or is likely to cause the occurrence of an offence endangering national security.”
Service providers who do not comply with such requests could face fines of up to 100,000 Hong Kong dollars ($12,903 U.S.) and receive jail terms of six months.
Individuals who post such messages may also be asked to remove the message, or face similar fines and a jail term of one year.
Under the implementation rules, Hong Kong chief executive Carrie Lam may also authorize police to intercept communications and conduct surveillance to “prevent and detect offences endangering national security.”
The details of the implementation rules come into effect Tuesday and details were released after the Committee for Safeguarding National Security of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, chaired by Lam, convened its first meeting on Monday.
Hong Kong’s national security law, imposed last week, makes secessionist, subversive, and terrorist activities illegal, as well as foreign intervention in the city’s internal affairs. Any activities such as shouting slogans or holding up banners and flags calling for the city’s independence are a violation of the law regardless of whether violence is used. The maximum penalty is life imprisonment.
Critics see it as Beijing’s boldest step yet to erase the legal firewall between the former British colony and the mainland’s authoritarian Communist Party system.
Since the law went into effect, the government has specified that the popular protest slogan “Liberate Hong Kong, revolution of our time” has separatist connotations and is thus criminalized.
A 23-year-old man, Tong Ying-kit, was the first person in Hong Kong to be charged under the new law, for allegedly driving a motorcycle into a group of police while bearing a flag with the “Liberate Hong Kong, revolution of our time” slogan.
Tong appeared in court Monday facing charges of incitement to secession and terrorist activities. He was denied bail.