Five teenagers with a Hong Kong group advocating independence from Chinese rule were ordered by a judge on Saturday to serve up to three years in detention at a correctional facility, for urging an “armed revolution” in a national security case.
The five, some of whom were minors aged between 15 and 18 at the time of the alleged offence, had pleaded guilty to “inciting others to subvert state power” through a group named “Returning Valiant.”
Sentences for two more, ages 21 and 26, will be delivered at a later date.
Justice Kwok Wai-kin detailed how the defendants had advocated a “bloody revolution” to overthrow the Chinese state at street booths, and on Instagram and Facebook after adoption of a sweeping, China-imposed national security law.
Kwok called the alleged incitement a serious crime, but nevertheless took into account their “age and immaturity” as he sentenced them to a training center, or detention facility for young people, rather than jail.
The length of stay, capped at three years, is left to correctional authorities to decide.
Credit: cnn.com
