Freedom for 5 + 1

Five speech therapists were released after 19 months in jail

Five speech therapists who were convicted of writing three children's books that alluded to the 2019 protests, were released Monday morning Hong Kong time.

While Lorie Lai Man-ling, Melody Yeung Yat-yee, Sidney Ng Hau-yi, Samuel Chan Yuen-sum, and Marco Fong Tsz-ho were sentenced to 19 months in jail for sedition, they had been remanded in custody so long that they were released soon after the conviction on September 7.

The five had written children's books about sheep and wolves, which the prosecution said allegedly spread separatism and stirred hatred and opposition to the the government. In court the prosecution alleged the sheep were Hongkongers, the wolves were the government.

Their crime? Writing books about sheep & wolves

The books did reference the 2019 protests, as well as the 12 Hongkongers who fled by speedboat to Taiwan, but were intercepted by the Chinese Coast Guard.

District Judge Kwok Wai-kin ruled the books were about the 2019 protests and other events in Hong Kong which amounted to "brainwashing" young readers with anti-China sentiment.

"They will be told that in fact, they are the sheep, and the wolves who are trying to harm them are the PRC Government and the Hong Kong Government," wrote Kwok, who was one of a panel of national security judges chosen by the chief executive. 

"The publishers of the books clearly refuse to recognise that [China] has resumed exercising sovereignty over [Hong Kong]," Kwok wrote in his decision, referring to the handover in 1997.

Rights groups said conviction eroded free speech

At the sentencing, Yeung said in court that her "only regret was that she had not published more picture books before her arrest".

Rights groups claimed charging the five under the colonial sedition law showed further erosion of free speech in the city.

"Hong Kong people used to read about the absurd prosecution of people in mainland China for writing political allegories, but this is now happening in Hong Kong," said Maya Wang, senior China researcher at Human Rights Watch in a statement. 

"Hong Kong authorities should reverse this dramatic decline in freedoms and quash the convictions of the five children's book authors."

In any event they are released, to the relief of many.

Chan flanked by Cyd Ho (left) and Emily Lau

Another piece of good news was the release of Figo Chan Ho-wun of the now disbanded Civil Human Rights Front after 17 months in jail for unauthorised protests.

He was greeted by Cyd Ho Sau-lan and Emily Lai Wai-hing upon his release.

Let Freedom Ring!