Misguided opinions are a mainstay of student politics, but in Hong Kong they are also a matter of the law

We continue to make legal history of a rather dubious kind. Consider the case of the four University of Hong Kong (HKU) students who appeared in court this week and were sentenced to two years of correctional servitude. The first of several interesting things about this event is that the offence was purely an expression of opinion. The four were among the members of the student council which, the day after a man had stabbed a policeman and then himself, passed a motion lamenting the death of the attacker, and describing him as a “martyr”. You may think, as I do, that this was a thoroughly misg…

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