A Hong Kong political commentator accused of leaking details of a national security investigation will go on trial in October.
Wong Kwok-ngon, known by his alias Wong On-yin, appeared in the District Court on Tuesday.
Judge Stanley Chan said the preliminary hearing will be held behind closed doors on August 11 and that the trial will begin on October 9.
Before the hearing began on Tuesday, Judge Chan told those in the public gallery that police would remove their names if they shouted words of encouragement for Wong after the hearing ended.
Chan noted that at the court hearing last month, after the hearing was over and he had left the room, people made comments in support of the defendant.
Wong, 72, has been banned since his arrest in December for allegedly revealing in a YouTube video details of police investigations during a national security investigation.
The offense falls under the National Security Protection Ordinance, a security law known as Article 23. It was added to the ordinance in May as part of additional legislation, and Wong is the first to be loaded according to the new law.
Wong is also charged with sedition for videos posted on YouTube between January 3 and December 6 last year. He plans to plead not guilty to both charges.
The defendant, who continues to represent himself, told the court he had dropped his application for legal aid.
Asked by the judge if he had the legal knowledge of self-defense, Wong said he had “three law degrees” and was confident about handling the case.
The prosecution has set aside eight days for its case and plans to post about 30 commentary videos on Wong’s YouTube channel. The transcripts of the videos are on more than 900 pages.
The prosecution added that it had lined up six witnesses, all police officers.
Wong was was taken by the national security police in December, the same day he was to give a press conference about the fatal fire at Wang Fuk Court that had occurred days earlier. He was then released.
He was arrested four days later on suspicion of “prejudicing the investigation of offenses that endanger national security” and “committing an act that has an insurrectionary purpose for the purpose of insurrection.”
