HKFP
Koo Sze-yiu, 78, was sentenced to nine months in prison under the sedition law for planning to take a home-made coffin to protest the overhauled District Council race last December.
Veteran Hong Kong activist Koo Sze-yiu has been sentenced to nine months in jail over a plan to protest against the overhauled District Council race last December.
Koo, 78, was convicted of “attempting or preparing to do an act with a seditious intention” under the colonial-era sedition law over a planned protest against the local elections, from which opposition candidates were shut out following an electoral overhaul that guaranteed only “patriots” could govern.
Chief Magistrate Victor So, one of the city’s designated national security judges, handed Koo a guilty verdict on Friday morning at the West Kowloon Magistrates’ Courts. He said that Koo had planned to take a home-made coffin to the Registration and Electoral Office last December 8, to protest the District Council race, which was held two days later.
On the coffin were Chinese-language protest slogans that read “One Country, Two Systems to the funeral parlour” and “Love the country and the party to get a seat,” So said, adding that Koo also planned to chant other slogans at scene and had informed the media about his action.
He said Koo had met with an election office employee a day before the planned demo, and notified the latter about his plans. Koo, however, did not protest as he was arrested by officers from the National Security Department of the police hours before he was set to go to the Registration and Electoral Office.
