BREAKING: Ex-lawmaker Lam Cheuk-ting jailed for 3 years, 1 month over 2019 Yuen Long attack rioting
Hong Kong Free Press
Former Hong Kong opposition lawmaker Lam Cheuk-ting has been sentenced to three years and one month in prison after being convicted of rioting in the 2019 Yuen Long mob attack.
District Judge Stanley Chan on Thursday handed Lam, formerly a lawmaker for the Democratic Party, the prison term after earlier finding him and six others guilty of rioting in Yuen Long on July 21, 2019, as the city was rocked by pro-democracy protests and unrest.
The other six defendants were given jail terms ranging from two years and a month, up to two years and seven months.
On that night, over 100 rod-wielding men dressed in white stormed the Yuen Long MTR station and attacked commuters and protesters coming home from a pro-democracy demonstration. Dozens – including Lam – were beaten and injured during the assault.
During the trial, Lam pleaded not guilty and said in his defence that he went to the station on that night as a lawmaker to mitigate violence and protect residents.
The official account of the incident evolved over a year, with the authorities eventually claiming it was a “gang fight” between two groups of people.
Chan ruled that Lam’s presence at the station had provoked the white-clad men and his behaviour at the scene had “fanned the flames,” adding that the incident was a result of a confluence of “two typhoons.”
He said there was a riot involving people not dressed in white preceding the subsequent attack by the white-clad men: “This case is about the people not dressed in white, who stayed in the paid area – and there were more people involved beyond the seven defendants in this case,” Chan said in Cantonese.
“What happened on July 21… should not be overshadowed by the later episode of the attack,” he said.
The judge also said Lam went to Yuen Long for “political benefit,” highlighting his Facebook livestream during the incident as an attempt to “attract traffic.”
2019 unrest
Lam has been behind bars for over 1,400 days and is currently serving a six year and nine month jail term for conspiring to commit subversion. It was a result of the city’s largest national security case, in which 45 pro-democracy campaigners were convicted last year.
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.”
Police were criticised for responding slowly to the Yuen Long incident, with some officers seen leaving the scene or interacting with the white-clad men.
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