Hong Kong veteran activist Koo Sze-yiu has been sentenced to nine months in jail under the ‘sedition law’ for planning to protest against the Beijing Winter Olympics earlier this year, a media report said.

A Hong Kong ordered the sentence to 75-year-old invoking the national security law promulgated in 2020 to crush dissent on the island territory.

Koo Sze-yiu had planned to carry a homemade wooden coffin to China’s Liaison Office in the city on the opening day of the Games on February 4, but national security police raided his apartment and arrested him that day before any protest could take place, the Beijing News Net  reported quoting the CNN.

However, Koo had denied a charge of “attempting or preparing to commit an act or acts with seditious intention,” CNN citing public broadcaster RTHK reported.

Prior to his sentence, Koo had been held in custody for more than five months after being denied bail.

Earlier in April, Hong Kong pro-democracy activist “Fast Beat” Tam Tak Chi (50) was sent to jail for 40 months for “using seditious words and disorderly conduct in a public place”. He faced 14 charges, including seven counts under the colonial-era sedition law. and fined HK$5,000 The charges are implied due to conspiracy to utter seditious words, holding or convening an unauthorised assembly, incitement to knowingly take part in an unauthorised assembly, and refusing to obey an order given by an authorised officer. He was accused by the prosecution of making baseless accusations against the Hong Kong police, and insulting them by describing them as “damned black cops”, Hong Kong Media reported.

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