Two jailed former Hong Kong opposition lawmakers have been sentenced to weeks in prison after pleading guilty to charges arising from a 2019 clash in the city’s legislature over a controversial extradition bill.
Hong Kong’s legislature descended into chaos on May 11, 2019, over a controversial extradition bill. File photo: Supplied.
Eddie Chu and Raymond Chan entered their guilty plea on Tuesday, nearly six years after chaos broke out in the chamber of Hong Kong’s Legislative Council (LegCo) on May 11, 2019.
At that time, pro-Beijing and pro-democracy lawmakers fought for control over the vetting process of the extradition bill, which sparked large-scale protests and unrest later that year.
On Tuesday, Chu admitted to four counts of “assaulting, obstructing or molesting a member being within the precincts of the chamber,” while Chan to two counts of the same charge, which carries a maximum penalty of a year in jail.
Chan also pleaded guilty to one count of contempt over a separate case in which he filibustered inside the LegCo chamber on June 4, 2020, by spilling liquid with a foul odour, which caused a meeting to be paused for four hours.
The third defendant – Lam Cheuk-ting, also a jailed former opposition lawmaker – pleaded not guilty, with a trial scheduled for September.
Acting Principal Magistrate Cheng Lim-chi sentenced Chu and Chan to 14 and 32 days in jail respectively after giving discounts for the pair’s guilty pleas.
Eddie Chu. File photo: Legislative Council, via Flickr.
Cheng said the legislature was a solemn place and the pair were obstructing other lawmakers from their duties out of political reasons, but noted that there was no serious violence.
He ordered parts of the new sentences to be carried out concurrently, which effectively added seven days to Chu’s time in prison and 20 days to Chan’s.
Chu has been serving a jail term of four years and five months while Chan six years and six months – both for conspiring to commit subversion under the Beijing-imposed national security law.
Lam has been serving a six-year-and-nine-month jail term for the same offence.
In late February, Lam was sentenced to three years and one month in prison after being convicted of rioting in the 2019 Yuen Long mob attack. He will serve three months of the latest sentence concurrently with his other jail term, meaning he will have to remain behind bars for an extra two years and 10 months.
Scuffles in LegCo
The extradition bill, which was later withdrawn, proposed amending laws so that Hong Kong could accept extradition requests from countries with which the city had no prior agreement, including mainland China.
The LegCo meeting on May 11, 2019, was eventually postponed due to the chaos, with multiple lawmakers from both sides saying they were injured during the clashes.
Footage captured by media outlets showed Chan standing on a table in the chamber and trying to forcibly seize the microphone held by former pro-Beijing lawmaker Abraham Shek, who attempted to convene the meeting.
Raymond Chan outside the West Kowloon Law Courts Building on July 10, 2023. File photo: Kyle Lam/HKFP.
Chu was seen holding a loudhailer and scuffling with pro-Beijing lawmakers.
Prosecutors said that the standoff caused pro-Beijing lawmakers Ben Chan and Elizabeth Quat to suffer from minor back and shoulder injuries.
