On Saturday, five Hong Kong speech therapists were sentenced to 19 months in prison for publishing children’s books that depict local democracy supporters as sheep protecting their village from wolves allegedly representing Beijing.

Hong Kong from a bird’s eye view – Photo: EarnestTse / Shutterstock.com/ND

On Wednesday, they were convicted of “sedition” under a law inherited from British colonization and used by the current authorities to crack down on dissent with a national security law introduced by Beijing in 2020.

The authors of the books, Lai Man-ling, Melody Yung, Sydney Ng, Samuel Chan and Fong Tso, are the founders of the speech therapists’ union and were in prison for more than a year before the trial.

The group could be released 31 days after deducting the sentence already served, one of its lawyers said on Saturday.

Five professionals decided to publish three picture books for young readers about the pro-democracy movement in Hong Kong.

The books were published in 2020, a year after the massive and often violent demonstrations by the pro-democracy movement.

This Saturday, in front of Judge Kwok Wai Kin, who called the works brainwashing, the three of them said they had no regrets.

Melody Yung, 28, added that she hoped to side with the sheep. “I only regret one thing: I didn’t publish more books before I was arrested,” she said in court.

Sidney Ng, 27, said through his lawyer that the lawsuits “intimidated civil society and alienated the people of Hong Kong.”

According to the prosecution, the picture books exhibit “anti-Chinese sentiment” and are intended to “incite readers’ hatred of the authorities in mainland China.”

But the defendants argued that the books tell “a story from the point of view of the people” and are designed to help children understand systemic injustice in society.

Amnesty International, which recently left Hong Kong under the National Security Act, called the convictions “an absurd example of ruthless repression.”

Until recently, Hong Kong has been a bastion of free speech in China and home to a vibrant and critical publishing industry.

But China has unleashed widespread political crackdown in the city in response to massive and often violent protests in 2019.

Leading figures in the movement are currently in jail, awaiting trial or on the run abroad.

Dozens of civil society groups, including many trade unions, were suppressed.