hong kong the first person convicted under hong kongs national security law and jailed for nine years last july has dropped his decision to appeal his lawyer said on thursdayformer waiter tong yingkit 24 was found guilty of terrorist activities and inciting secession after driving his motorcycle into three riot policemen in 2020 while carrying a flag with the protest slogan liberate hong kong revolution of our timesthe ruling was seen as a watershed moment for hong kongs judicial system tong had indicated at the time through his lawyer clive grossman that he would appealgrossman however told reuters on thursday in an email that tong who had pleaded not guilty had decided not to appeali have no idea why he dropped the appeal said grossmanthe decision was first reported in the hong kong free press which cited grossman as saying he was surprised by itchina imposed a national security law on hong kong in june 2020 punishing acts of subversion terrorism collusion with foreign forces and secession with possible life imprisonmentcritics including western governments say the law has been used to silence dissent with scores of prodemocracy campaigners arrested civil society groups disbanded and free speech curtailedhong kong and chinese authorities say the law has brought stability to the city after protracted prodemocracy protests in 2019 and reject accusations of politically motivated prosecutionsat the end of tongs closely watched trial judges esther toh anthea pang and wilson chan picked by city leader carrie lam to hear national security cases ruled that the slogan he carried on his motorbike was capable of inciting others to commit secessionhuman rights groups criticised his conviction saying it imposed new limits on free speech and the precedents set by the trial contrasted with hong kongs common law traditionsseveral other national security cases are pending including a conspiracy to commit subversion case involving 47 of the citys most prominent campaigners for democracy including benny tai joshua wong owen chow gwyneth ho sam cheung and former lawmakers eddie chu wu chiwai and lam cheuktinglast month police raided prodemocracy online news outlet stand news froze its assets and charged two editors with conspiring to publish seditious publications leading to its closure