HK lawmaker found guilty of desecrating Chinese flag

HONG KONG: A Hong Kong prodemocracy lawmaker yesterday was found guilty of ‘desecrating’ the Chinese and Hong Kong flags by turning them upside down in parliament, but escaped a prison sentence.

Cheng Chung-tai upended small Chinese and Hong Kong flags that some pro-Beijing legislators had displayed on their desks in the legislative assembly last October.

The incident happened during a feisty session in which two pro-independence lawmakers were barred from taking up their seats in a row over an oath-taking ceremony.

Under Hong Kong law, it is an offence to desecrate national and regional flags by “publicly and wilfully burning, mutilating, scrawling on, defiling or trampling on them”.

Cheng was found guilty on one count of desecrating the national flag and one count of desecrating the regional flag by a magistrates’ court yesterday.

He was handed a HK$ 5,000 fine, though each charge carries a maximum penalty of a HK$ 50,000 fine and three years in jail.

Cheng had previously pleaded not guilty. Cheng’s lawyer had argued that he did not cause any physical damage to the flags, but magistrate Cheng Lim- chi said it happened in a symbolic place.

The lawmaker said the whole process was ‘ridiculous’.

“I would say today’s verdict serves to remind Hong Kong residents that our society is not open or has democracy and freedom, we are facing an authoritarian government,” he told reporters after the hearing. — AFP