Support Free Speech; Protest against Selective Prosecution; Support Szeto Wah

The chairman of the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China, Szeto Wah, 76, attended a street forum on 25/5/2007 at Mong Kok hosted by Citizen's Radio.  The topic of the program involved the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown.  He was summonsed for delivering political messages using unlicensed communications equipment after almost 6 months on 15/11/2007.  This is for sure a BIASED and unfair prosecution and the reasons are:

1. The Citizen's Radio was not deliberately operated without a proper license, the Office of the Telecommunications Authority rejected the application of the license and this case is still under dispute in the courts
2. There were many others that had spoken on Citizen's Radio, including local NPC deputy David Chu Yu-lin, Executive Councillor Anthony Cheung Bing-leung and legislator Choy So-yuk of the DAB.  Why were all these few speakers not charged afterwards? 
3. Szeto Wah appeared on the radio forum in May, 2007 but the government chose to prosecute him after almost 6 months later.  This indicates the charge against Szeto Wah is a form of selective prosecution. The government has invoked the “Telecommunication Ordinance” where the prosecution period is limited to within 6 months and thus, both Anthony Cheung Bing-leung and Choy So-yuk can be exempted from the prosecutions.

The chairman of the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China, Szeto Wah and other defendants appeared in the court on 26/11/2007 and 7/12/2007.  Over 100 members of HK Alliance, HK Professional Teachers’ Union and Students Unions came to show support for Mr. Szeto.  Szeto Wah pleaded not guilty to the charge and stated that he would not pay the fine if found guilty by the court.  He would rather protest the charge in order to support the free speech as a citizen.  During the first court appearance, the trial was postponed to the 7/12/2007 due to the insufficient documents provided to the prosecutor.  On 7/12/2007, the prosecutor requested the postponement of the case again to a date after the question of legality of the Citizen's Radio has been resolved in a pending and related case, where the radio seeks to justify its operation with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.  The case against Szeto Wah resumed in the court again on 14/1 and 3/3/2008, however, the judge decided that it’s for the best interest to postpone it to July 8, 9:30am in the Eastern Court #3.

In order to support the free speech in Hong Kong, we ask for your support and signature in the “Protect Free Speech & Protest Selective Prosecution” petition: http://gopetition.com/online/15480.htm

Or you can go the following link:
http://www.alliance.org.hk/
to obtain the form, collect signatures and send it to:
Address:
8/F., Good Hope Building,
618 Nathan Road,
Mok Kok,
Kowloon
Or Fax to: (852) 27706083

Please spare the time and support Mr. Szeto Wah in his court case, by gathering at the court house at the following time and place:
Date: July 8 (Tuesday)
Time: 9:00am
Place: Sai Wan Ho Eastern Court