He is one of the few pro-democracy activists still active in Hong Kong since the severe takeover of the island, carried out by China after the gigantic demonstrations of 2019. Koo Sze-yiu, 78-year-old pro-democracy political activist, suffers from terminal cancer, was sentenced on Friday February 16 to nine months in prison for “attempted sedition”. This, after trying to demonstrate against political repression using a fake coffin.
Prosecutors accused him of having prepared a demonstration against the local elections last December in Hong Kong, in which only “patriotic” candidates, that is to say pro-Beijing, could participate. Hong Kong national security police arrested him on December 8, before he could carry out his plan.
According to the judgment, Mr Koo intended to display himself with a fake coffin “symbolizing death” and “the fall of the central government”. Local media reported that before being taken away by guards, the accused claimed in court that he intended to be a “martyr for democracy and human rights.”
Imprisoned at least twelve times since 2000
Koo Sze-yiu, who suffers from colorectal cancer, has been imprisoned at least twelve times since 2000. In 2022, he had already been sentenced for the first time to nine months in prison for “attempted sedition” for a project demonstration against Beijing's organization of the Winter Olympics.
Most pro-democracy activists in Hong Kong have been in prison, or have taken refuge abroad, since Beijing imposed a draconian national security law on the territory in 2020 which stifled all dissent, after major pro-democracy protests. which shook the island in 2019. The law covers four offenses – secession, subversion, terrorism and collusion with foreign forces – for which the prison sentence can be up to life.
Four years after that imposed by China, the local government of Hong Kong also announced its own national security law, in October 2023. “I must emphasize that the legislation [under] Article 23 of the Basic Law must be made (…) as soon as possible,” leader John Lee said in late January, referring to the article in the southern Chinese territory's mini-Constitution providing that Hong Kong legislates over its own national security with regard to seven security crimes.
