HK government accused of exploiting flawed cyberlaw to arrest political activist

[EndoftheWorld]

Hong Kong government accused of exploiting flawed cyberlaw to arrest political activist

PUBLISHED : Wednesday, 03 June, 2015, 3:29am
UPDATED : Wednesday, 03 June, 2015, 3:29am

Samuel Chan [email protected]

John Lee explains the law to legislators. Photo: SCMP Pictures

The government was accused yesterday of exploiting its cybersecurity law after the recent arrest of an activist for comments he made on social media.

Last Friday, police used section 161 of the Crimes Ordinance to arrest Tam Tak-chi, 43, a leading member of pan-democratic group People Power.

He posted on his Facebook page that the hearse carrying the body of a ringleader of the deadly 1967 leftist riots would be welcomed by "home-made pineapples" - a code that referred to bombs during the turmoil.

Tam says his arrest was politically motivated as he meant no harm.

However, police said his comment amounted to inciting others to commit illegal acts and its recently upgraded cybersecurity and technology crime bureau was investigating.

Speaking at the Legislative Council's panel on security, undersecretary for security John Lee Ka-chiu said a high threshold was needed to charge a person under section 161 of the Crimes Ordinance.

"We have an 85 per cent conviction rate, and there have never been any negative comments made by judges," Lee told lawmakers.

But some lawmakers said the government was exploiting flawed and outdated legislation.

Pan-democratic lawmakers said the legislation, when it was enacted in 1993, was intended to outlaw only unauthorised access or modification to computer systems to primarily fight deception. It was not meant to outlaw all possible criminal intents by the use of a computer that may already be covered under other existing laws, they said.

"It was suggested that [back in 1993], after the legislation was enacted, there should be a review," said Civic Party lawmaker Alan Leong Ka-kit.

"How time flies. It has been 20-odd years since … and the administration doesn't seem to have any intention of conducting a review of section 161."

The government was also slammed for not disclosing details of the 293 prosecutions involving the same offence between 2008 and 2014. Lee responded that authorities "kept no such records".

Meanwhile, pro-Beijing lawmakers urged the administration to extend the coverage of section 161 to more areas to "ensure public security".