Lorie Lai Man-ling and Melody Yeung Yat-yee, two among five defendants of the case of "Sheep Village", dismissed their defence counsel in the morning and made their submissions.

The first defendant Lorie Lai shared her reflections and experiences from the five-day trial and the 13-month remand over the court. She rebuttal the prosecutor, who took extremist terrorists as an example to argue that freedom of speech must not conflict with national security, and question whether "freedom with restrictions is freedom?"

She was interrupted by Judge Kwok Wai-kin, "If you continue that way, it would be a political statement. If you think I am wrong, then appeal my decision. If you think the prosecution's interpretation is wrong, then appeal theirs!" Kwok continues, "Hong Kong has the Court of Final Appeal, with foreign judges sitting there. I don't think we can single-handedly hide the sky."

The second defendant Melody Yeung said in pleading the case, “rather than judging us for seditious intent and spreading rumours, I think it’s about judging the correct view of history.” She said that Athens could judge Socrates, but not philosophy; The Catholic church could judge Galileo, but not heliocentrism, and that “in history, there’s no single, absolutely corrected view, but a diversity of perspectives. There’s no absolute correctness, only the ability to withstand repeated tests.”

She said only the people’s hearts could judge whether the illustrated books were a genuine reflection of Hong Kong’s social sentiment, a record of the community’s historical perspective, or a spread of rumours.

"If national security only means the security of the ruling group, without respect for personal freedom, then even peace and prosperity is an illusion based on fear," she said, "countless Hong Kong people have come and gone hoping to change uneven political power like this, but they were beaten and shot."

The judge again stopped her speech and said, "All right, all right, Miss Yeung, I think it's over."

Yeung responded, “now it's the relevant part.” Then she points out that the series of political offences affect only not a "handful of people" such as the case's defendants but would lead to a self-silencing civil society and a long-term regression in thought and civilisation.

Yeung was interrupted a second time as she explained the “interchangeable” roles of sheep and wolf in the story. This time she was interrupted by the prosecutor Ng Shuk-kuen, the acting Senior Assistant Director of Public Prosecutions, who stood up and said to the judge , “I believe [Yeung] has gone too far.”

Yeung said, "ok, last words. I never regret being on the side of the sheep. The only thing I regret is that I couldn't get more books done before I was arrested, or that I wasn't more obsessed with the quality of my books." provoking tears among some court spectators.

The third defendant Sidney Ng Hau-yi quoted the speech of Nobel Laureate Camus, who said, "A writer cannot serve today those who make history; he must serve those who are subject to it. Otherwise, he will be alone and deprived of his art."

"The essence of education should be inspiration and guidance, not intimidation and indoctrination, and the same is true when explaining the relationship between individual and country to children," she added.

"Rather than inciting hatred, the three illustrated books are meant to explain the source of these feelings and why they are intensifying so rapidly after 2019; Rather than inciting disobedience, the aim is to make children reflect on the basis of law-abiding, rather than blindly obeying out of fear; Rather than inciting anything, I would like to record acts of bravery."

Source: The Witness #Sep10

#SpeechTherapists #sheepVillage #sedition #NSL #KwokWaiKin #NgShukKuen

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