A student from Hong Kong who had been studying at a Japanese university has been indicted for “seditious” online statements made while she was in Japan, a case that adds to fears over a sweeping national security law that is being deployed beyond the city’s borders.

Yuen Ching-ting, 23, had returned from Tokyo in February to renew her identity card and was arrested in early March — a day before her scheduled flight to Japan — over her posts on social media, the South China Morning Post reported.

In the Thursday indictment, handed down by Hong Kong’s National Security Department, she was charged with “doing an act or acts with seditious intention” and accused by the prosecutor of using language that incites “hatred or contempt” against the central government in Beijing and the authorities in Hong Kong, Nikkei Asia reported.

Police said in April that her posts included phrases such as “Hong Kong independence" and "Liberate Hong Kong, revolution of our times," the report said.

The Beijing-imposed national security law, which came into effect in June 2020, targets alleged acts of secession, subversion, or collusion with foreign entities, and can in some cases lead to a life sentence. Part of a wider crackdown on dissent, it can also be applied to acts committed outside of Hong Kong, though the sedition provision is only meant to apply within the city.

The defense pointed out that most of the posts in the case were made overseas, with the court hearing that only two were made from Hong Kong, the South China Morning Post reported.

Yuen’s lawyers also referred to the statute of limitations for sedition offenses, set at six months, claiming that she made her last social media post more than a year ago in May 2022, Nikkei Asia reported.

But the prosecutor said Yuen’s posts to Facebook and Instagram came between September 2018 and early March this year, adding that they were accessible in Hong Kong even if they were created in Japan, the report said.

Yuen was granted bail and released on Friday, the South China Morning Post reported. She is due to appear for a hearing on Aug. 2, a schedule of court proceedings shows.

Under the conditions of her bail, Yuen is required to delete all the social media posts related to her case, report to a police station twice a week, and cannot travel abroad, join online chat groups with more than five people, or speak to the media, the report said.

Police are also allowed access to her social media accounts, if necessary, according to the South China Morning Post.

On Thursday, the Japan Hong Kong Democracy Alliance released a statement calling for the Japanese government to address the incident, calling it a “violation” of Japanese sovereignty from Hong Kong’s judicial system, adding that Yuen’s actions in Japan had not violated any domestic laws.