Jailed Hong Kong radio host loses final appeal over sedition conviction

6/3/2025 16:21

Hong Kong's top court on Thursday dismissed a bid to overturn the 2022 conviction and sentence of jailed pro-democracy activist Tam Tak-chi under a colonial-era sedition law.



Tam, a former member of the now-disbanded People Power party and also radio host DJ known as "Fast Beat", was the first Hong Kong person tried on a sedition charge since the city's handover from British to Chinese rule in 1997.



His case is also the first time the top court has heard an appeal against the colonial-era sedition law.



The five judges said in a ruling that "the prosecution was not required to establish that the words uttered by the appellant were intended to incite violence or public disorder".



Tam's lawyer, Philip Dykes, earlier cited a statement by Gandhi in his sedition trial in 1922 and argued that people should enjoy the freedom to express disaffection against a person or system as long as they did not incite violence.