A Hong Kong news commentator could face up to seven years in jail if convicted of allegedly posting seditious content online about the deadly Tai Po fire after prosecutors moved his case to the higher District Court.
Chief Magistrate Victor So Wai-tak on Monday granted prosecutors’ request to transfer Wong Kwok-ngon’s sedition case from West Kowloon Court to the higher court, where sentences are capped at seven years. The maximum sentence at the magistrates’ courts is generally capped at two years.
Wong, 71, known by his pen name Wong On-yin, allegedly posted hundreds of seditious videos between January 3 and December 6 last year on his YouTube channel, including some with remarks on the Wang Fuk Court blaze that killed at least 168 people last November.
He has been charged with knowingly publishing seditious publications, which is punishable by a maximum jail term of seven years.
Wong is also the first person to be prosecuted for prejudicing an investigation into national security offences, as he was accused of unlawfully divulging details of his meeting with police on December 3 on his channel.
A source earlier revealed that Wong had been a writer for the now-defunct tabloid Apple Daily and deputy convenor of the disbanded Civil Human Rights Front.
