Graffiti News

A Hong Kong court gave probation, not prison, for slogans written on a toilet wall

West Kowloon Court sentenced Leung Kai-lok, 19, to 18 months of probation on 12 August 2026 for writing anti-government messages on a commercial complex toilet wall, according to the South China Morning Post. The sentence also required psychiatric and psychological counselling, community activities and courses, and HK$1,500 in cleaning costs. The South China Morning Post reports that he is potentially the first person to avoid a custodial sentence for violating Hong Kong's Safeguarding National Security Ordinance.

What was written, and where

According to the South China Morning Post, Leung wrote anti-government messages in the men's toilet at China Hong Kong City, a commercial complex in Tsim Sha Tsui, between 17 and 21 July 2025. He used a marker pen. CP24, carrying an AFP report, states that the phrases included the protest slogan "Liberate Hong Kong, revolution of our times", obscenities, and "die John Lee", a reference to Hong Kong Chief Executive John Lee.

One marker pen, two separate bodies of law

The same act drew charges under two very different kinds of law. According to the South China Morning Post, Leung faced three counts of criminal damage alongside a charge under the Safeguarding National Security Ordinance, and the court found him guilty of inciting hatred towards the authorities.

The two carry entirely different weight. The remedy for the damage was HK$1,500 in cleaning costs. The national security offence, CP24 reports, carried a maximum of seven years in prison. What set the scale of the potential punishment was not the amount of ink on the wall but the sentences written in it.

What the magistrate said

CP24 reports that Chief Magistrate So Wai-tak noted Leung had been 12 years old during the 2019 Hong Kong protests referenced by the slogan, which meant his understanding of it was limited, and that he may have been influenced by content he saw online. The magistrate said freedom of speech exists but is "relative".

The South China Morning Post reports that Leung's good background, his young age, and the limited impact of the offences were accepted as exceptional circumstances. He has autism spectrum disorder and had already spent four weeks in custody before sentencing.

Why the case is described as a first

Beijing imposed a national security law on Hong Kong in 2020, and Hong Kong enacted its own Safeguarding National Security Ordinance in 2024. According to CP24, as of 1 August a total of 415 people had been arrested for national security crimes and 185 convicted. Against that record, the South China Morning Post reports this is the first time someone convicted under the ordinance has avoided a custodial sentence.

What this says about the legal weight of writing on a wall

Writing on someone else's wall without permission is an offence in Hong Kong, as it is almost everywhere. What this case shows is what happens after that point. In most jurisdictions, graffiti is handled as property law: criminal damage, restitution, cleaning costs, with the penalty tracking the cost of putting the surface back.

This case sits outside that calculation. The measurable damage was HK$1,500, but the ceiling on the sentence was set by the content of the writing. The legal position of marking a wall was determined not by the surface or the cost of cleaning it, but by what the words said.

Wallscape takes no position on the politics of the case or on whether the sentence was correct. The point worth noting for anyone who follows walls in cities is narrower: the same marker pen and the same wall can fall under entirely different categories of law depending on the jurisdiction. What is actually on the walls of a given city, and how long it lasts, is documented on the map and the feed.