Hong Kong – Hong Kong Free Press, Sept. 05, 2025
The Hong Kong Court of Appeal has denied a Portuguese citizen jailed under the Beijing-imposed national security law permission to appeal for a shorter sentence at the city’s top court.
In a Friday judgment, three appellate court judges – Jeremy Poon, Derek Pang, and Anthea Pang – shot down independence activist Joseph John’s application to take his bid for a shorter sentence to the Court of Final Appeal.
John, a Portuguese national also known as Wong Kin-chun, was the leader of the now-disbanded UK-based Hong Kong Independence Party. He was sentenced to five years in prison in April 2024 after pleading guilty to conspiring to incite secession through social media posts.
District Court Judge Ernest Lin said at the time that John had “distorted history, demonised the Chinese government, and appealed to foreign countries to destroy Hong Kong and China.”
John attempted to challenge his five-year jail term at the Court of Appeal in April this year. However, the appellate court also denied his application, with the same judges saying that a rule on minimum sentences in the Beijing-imposed national security law still applied to the conspiracy charge, despite it being an inchoate offence.
They referred to a top court ruling in 2023 stating that pleading guilty, which typically triggers a one-third jail term discount, could not reduce sentences below the five-year minimum for “serious” security law offences.
