HONG KONG—A Hong Kong Court on Thursday rejected an application to terminate a sedition trial against now-defunct online pro-democracy media outlet Stand News, a case that could see two former top editors jailed if convicted.
Former editors Chung Pui-kuen, 53, and Patrick Lam, 35, and the outlet’s parent company, Best Pencil (Hong Kong) Limited, have been charged with conspiracy to publish seditious material related to news articles and commentaries between July 2020 and December last year.
They have pleaded not guilty and are free on bail. Sedition is punishable by a maximum two years jail.
Defense lawyers Audrey Eu and David Ma applied to terminate the proceedings arguing the National Security Department had improperly handled evidence related to scores of additional articles prosecutors have cited as seditious since the trial began….