Hong Kong court upholds landmark sedition conviction for pro-democracy activist

Tam Tak-chi’s lawyers argued his conviction should be overturned because the prosecution had not shown he meant to incite violence (Kin Cheung/AP)

Criticising laws or chanting anti-government slogans can be enough to jail someone for sedition in Hong Kong, an appeal court has ruled in a landmark case brought under a colonial-era law increasingly used to crush dissent.

Hong Kong’s Court of Appeal upheld a 40-month sentence for pro-democracy activist Tam Tak-chi, the first person to be tried under the city’s sedition law since Hong Kong returned to Chinese rule in 1997.