A Hong Kong court found five speech therapists guilty of sedition over a series of children’s picture books that depicted the city’s democracy advocates as sheep defending their village from wolves. Prosecutors claimed the three picture books, which sought to explain Hong Kong’s pro-democracy movement to young people, spread “separatism” and incite “hatred” and opposition to the government. Lorie Lai, Melody Yeung, Sidney Ng, Samuel Chan and Marco Fong, aged between 25 and 28 and all members of a union of speech therapists, had pleaded not guilty. They chose not to testify during the trial or call witnesses when proceedings began in July. Their lawyers argued that the offense of sedition was vaguely defined and that each reader should be allowed to decide what the characters in the books stand for. They also warned that a guilty verdict would further criminalize political criticism and have a chilling effect on society. It is the first time the case of a staunch publication has gone to trial since protests rocked the region in 2019 and Beijing imposed a national security law the following year. The riot law, which dates back to the colonial era, had not been used since 1967 before being revived in the wake of mass protests. The categories concern three books aimed at children aged four to seven: The Guardians of Sheep Village, The 12 Heroes of Sheep Village and The Garbage Collectors of Sheep Village. Their plots relate to many real-life events, including the 2019 protests, a failed attempt by a group of 12 protesters to escape to Taiwan by speedboat, and a strike by doctors at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic demanding that Hong Kong seal off the its border with China. In a written summary released on Wednesday, District Court Judge Kwok Wai Kin said all three books were subversive, not just by the words “but by the words with the prohibited effects intended on the minds of children”. Senior Superintendent Steve Li, from Hong Kong’s national security police unit, holds children’s books that police said were seditious [File: Daniel Suen/AFP] “They will be told that they are actually the sheep and the wolves trying to harm them are the PRC (People’s Republic of China) government and the Hong Kong government,” wrote Kwok, who is part of a group of national security judges who were chosen by the city chief. The five will be sentenced on Saturday. The sedition law carries a prison sentence of up to two years. In a statement in response to the verdict, Amnesty International’s China campaigner Gwen Lee described the conviction as an “absurd example of the decay of human rights in the city. “Writing children’s books is not a crime, and trying to educate children about recent events in Hong Kong’s history is not an attempt to incite rebellion.” Before the enforcement of the Security Act, Hong Kong enjoyed considerable freedom of expression and was home to a vibrant media and publishing industry. But a sweeping crackdown in the wake of the 2019 protests forced many outlets to close, including the hugely popular tabloid Apple Daily, while books were removed from libraries and school curricula rewritten to include lessons on child safety legislation as young as six. Many pro-democracy activists and politicians are either in prison, awaiting trial or have fled abroad, and dozens of civil society groups, including many trade unions, have been shut down. Only people who are considered “patriots” are allowed to hold office in Hong Kong.
