Judge rules time limit not applicable for Stand News editors' sedition charges

District Court judge Kwok Wai-kin on Tuesday ruled non-applicable a time limit within which a sedition offense can be applied retroactively to evidence in the trial for two former top editors of the now-defunct pro-democracy online news outlet Stand News. 

The prosecution alleged the pair, editor-in-chief Chung Pui-kuen, 52, and acting editor-in-chief Patrick Lam Shiu-tung, 34, along with the outlet's holding company, Best Pencil (Hong Kong), conspired to publish seditious materials between July 7, 2020, and December 29, 2021.  

Chung and Lam were charged on December 29 - the day Stand News was shut - with conspiracy to publish seditious material, a colonial-era offense that carries up to two years in prison.  

In court yesterday, the prosecution submitted 17 articles and three videos as evidence of a conspiracy to publish seditious articles.  

For the defense, senior counsel Audrey Eu Yuet-mee argued that 10 of the 17 articles were not admissible as evidence as they were published more than six months before the defendants were charged on December 29, 2021. The colonial-era sedition law states that charges must be laid within six months of an offense being committed.