4 Hong Kong men sentenced up to 3 years in jail over rioting in July 2019
Hong Kong Free Press
Four Hong Kong men, including 19-year-old twins, have been sentenced to up to three years in prison for rioting in 2019 during the extradition bill unrest, after the judge cut their sentences because of the long delay in bringing them to justice.
Deputy District Judge David Cheung on Thursday jailed Chow Chi-wan and Yuen Yan-lam for three years for taking part in a protest in Admiralty on July 1, 2019, according to local media reports. They had been found guilty at a previous hearing. The judge also sent Dai Ka-ping, a former member of the Hong Kong Baptist University Students’ Union, and his twin brother Dai Ka-ching, to a training centre for a minimum of six months.
Hong Kong saw a large group of protesters gather near the government headquarters in Admiralty on July 1, 2019, when the city marked 22 years since its Handover from Britain to China. Some broke into the Legislative Council that night, marking an escalation of violence during the months-long protests in 2019.
According to local media, several hundred protesters had occupied roads and set up road blocks in the area, while others shone laser pointers at police.The four defendants were subdued near Lung Wui Road during a police dispersal operation.
The Dai brothers were not brought to court to face the rioting charge until October 2022, more than three years after their arrests.
In his judgement, Cheung said the protesters came prepared with face masks and helmets, showing their participation in the unrest was “premeditated.” Although no one had hurled bricks, petrol bombs or committed arson, the level of threat posed by the protest was high.
Cheung said police spent three months investigating the case, while the Department of Justice used two years and three months to give legal advice. The defendants had waited for a long time for their prosecution, the judge said.
Taking into account the long wait, Cheung reduced the jail term of Chow and Yuen by three months and eventually sentenced them to three years behind bars.
For the twins who were only 14 at the time of the offence, the judge said they were easily affected by the social atmosphere because of their youth. Although the pair had wanted an immediate jail sentence, the judge said they were more suitable for a training centre, which provides lessons and vocational training.
The detention period at a training centre, which only accepts offenders aged between 14 and 20, is capped at three years. The correctional services chief decides the duration of detention, and individuals released from a training centre may be subject to a three-year supervision, including observing curfews.
Protests erupted in June 2019 over a since-axed extradition bill. They escalated into sometimes violent displays of dissent against police behaviour, amid calls for democracy and anger over Beijing’s encroachment. Demonstrators demanded an independent probe into police conduct, amnesty for those arrested and a halt to the characterisation of protests as “riots.”
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