2 jailed for inciting residents to flout curbs, refuse jabs

Instagram posts described official efforts to fight virus as being politically driven or in bad faith

The owners of a Taiwanese drinks shop have been jailed for up to seven months under a colonial-era sedition law for inciting others to flout public health curbs and refuse Covid-19 vaccines.

A magistrate convicted the two women at West Kowloon Court yesterday after they admitted to a joint count of doing an act or acts with a seditious intent.

Chinese University student Hau Wing-yan, 24, and Lam Yuen-yi, 21, were the administrators of an Instagram account for the now-defunct Ascohesion Cheese Tea shop in Mong Kok when nine posts criticising the government’s anti-pandemic measures and vaccines were published on the platform between February 9 and 17 this year.

The Instagram posts, also published on the shop’s Facebook page, suggested official endeavours to curb the spread of Covid19 amid a surging fifth wave of infections were either politically motivated or driven by bad faith.

Some posts argued the government’s aim to restrict public gatherings during the pandemic was to prevent protests similar to the anti-extradition bill movement in 2019, while an official contact-tracing app was launched to collect residents’ private information in retaliation for opposing authorities during the protests.

One post suggested “unnecessarily wasting time lining up” for testing would “put yourself in trouble”, while another post described officials as “murderers” and called on students to pretend to be ill and skip classes after receiving vaccination.

Prosecutors, however, decided against pressing further charges in light of the pair’s guilty plea.

Counsel for Hau submitted in mitigation that the biomedical engineering student committed the offence on impulse after her mother, who was asked by her employer to get the jab, had an adverse reaction upon receiving the first dose.

The counsel said Hau had hoped to press the government to relax its vaccination policies.

Lam’s lawyers said their client did not write the posts but had consented to their publication. They said Lam was remorseful and had two doses of vaccines after forming a different opinion.

Principal Magistrate Peter Law Tak-chuen said the pair had taken advantage of the public’s fear and anxiety over newly developed vaccines and were looking to stir up negative sentiment which had grown in society since the social unrest in 2019.

The magistrate jailed Hau for seven months to reflect her leading role in the offence, before handing six months to Lam. Both will be eligible for early release having been incarcerated for over four months before the sentence.