Nine-year jail term handed out in first security law trial

The first person charged and tried under Hong Kong’s draconian national security law has been sentenced to nine years in jail after he was convicted of secession and terrorism for crashing his motorbike into police officers while flying a protest flag.

Tong Ying-kit, a 24-year-old former waiter, was convicted last week by a three-judge panel appointed by Hong Kong’s leader, Carrie Lam. Last Thursday, he was sentenced to six and a half years for the secession offence and eight years for terrorism, with two and a half years of the latter sentence to be served consecutively.