2 men jailed for 5 years over rioting at protest sparked by PolyU campus clashes in 2019
Hong Kong Free Press
Two men have been jailed for five years for rioting at a protest sparked by a campus siege at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU) in 2019.
Poon Hiu-tung, 27, and Pun Dhan Bahadur, 39, appeared at District Court on Tuesday to receive their sentences. Their case relates to a protest in Yau Ma Tei on November 18, 2019, when demonstrators lit fires and blocked roads in response to police entering PolyU and conducting arrests.
Poon and Pun had pleaded not guilty and were convicted in May, with judge Adriana Noelle Tse Ching saying that their testimonies in court were contradictory and “nonsensical.”
On Tuesday, Poon and Pun were each sentenced to five years in jail. Tse said both had only expressed remorse after the trial, suggesting that they were not genuine, The Witness reported.
The Yau Ma Tei riot took place as protesters occupied PolyU in nearby Hung Hom during a campus siege in November 2019 that was seen as one of the most dramatic episodes of the anti-extradition unrest.
PolyU was surrounded on all sides by riot police for almost two weeks that month, with some protesters barricading themselves inside the red-brick campus, while others surrendered. Some took desperate measures to flee the university by climbing down ropes or escaping through sewers.
The incident saw almost 1,400 people arrested on campus and in neighbouring districts, with protesters demonstrating in Tsim Sha Tsui, Jordan and Yau Ma Tei to try and divert police resources away from the campus.
Almost five years on, related cases are still going through the courts. Last week, 12 people were jailed for up to three years and four months after pleading guilty to rioting in Yau Ma Tei on the same night.
213 arrested in Yau ma Tei
During Poon and Pun’s trial last June, the prosecution said protesters had ignored police warnings at the scene. Police fired tear gas while protesters threw at least 250 petrol bombs, with a total of 213 arrests eventually being made.
The prosecution acknowledged that Poon and Pun were not captured on camera disrupting public order. But they added that authorities had warned the public about the disorder in the area at the time, and there was no reason for the defendants to go to the scene.
Poon testified during the trial that he had gone to Tai Kok Tsui on the day of the protest to find stainless steel sheets, and that he had gloves with him because he often went to construction sites.
Meanwhile, Pun said he lived in Jordan and was a construction worker. He said he did not know about the anti-extradition protests, only that there were occasional clashes and that MTR stations would close. He said that on the day of the incident, he had gone to his girlfriend’s place in Yau Ma Tei, but left because they had an argument.
During mitigation on the same day as the sentencing, Poon’s lawyer said his client used to work as an interior designer assistant but quit his job because of the case. The lawyer said Poon had reflected on his actions and that his friends had written mitigation letters describing him as kind and humble.
Pun’s lawyer said his client was born in Nepal and grew up poor. He came to Hong Kong in 2008 and actively joined events held for the Nepalese community, his lawyer said.
Six people in the same case earlier pleaded guilty and were sentenced to between three years and five months and three years and nine months in jail last July.
Protests broke out across Hong Kong in the summer of 2019, in response to a controversial extradition bill that grew into a wider demonstration against the Hong Kong and Beijing governments. Around 10,250 people were arrested in connection with the unrest, many of them young people.
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