HONG KONG—Five Hong Kong teenagers involved in a national security case were ordered by a judge on Oct. 8 to serve up to three years in detention at a correctional facility for urging an “armed revolution.”
The teenagers, some of whom were between 15 and 18 years old at the time of the alleged offense, had pleaded guilty to “inciting others to subvert state power” through a group named “Returning Valiant.”
Sentences for two other individuals, aged 21 and 26, will be delivered at a later date.
Justice Kwok Wai-kin said the defendants had advocated for a “revolution” to overthrow Chinese Communist Party (CCP) rule at street booths, on Instagram, and on Facebook after the adoption of a sweeping CCP-imposed national security law.
Kwok sentenced them to a training center, or a detention facility for young people, rather than jail.
The length of their stay, capped at three years, is left to correctional authorities to decide.
“There’s no evidence to directly prove that anyone was incited by the defendants to subvert state power, but this real risk exists,” Kwok said.
Four of the five teenagers have already been remanded in custody for more than a year, with only being one granted bail.
At least 22 people linked to the group were arrested last year. Several face a separate charge of conspiring to commit terrorism under the security law.
The CCP imposed the draconian national security law in Hong Kong after mass pro-democracy protests in 2019.
Human rights experts on the U.N. Human Rights Committee called for the law to be repealed in a July report amid concerns that it’s being used to suppress fundamental freedoms.
