Hong Kong footballer jailed for 2 years and 4 months over riot near PolyU during 2019 protests
Hong Kong Free Press
A Hong Kong court has jailed a footballer for two years and four months over a riot near a university under police siege during the 2019 protests and unrest.
Choi Pik-yee, 21, pleaded guilty on Thursday to rioting in Jordan in November 2019, when the Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU) was occupied by protesters and encircled by police in one of the most violent clashes during the anti-extradition protests. Choi was charged last May, nearly three and a half years after the incident took place, local media reported.
The court heard that around 400 protesters gathered in the vicinity of Nathan Road, Cox’s Road, and Austin Road on November 18, 2019. They hurled petrol bombs at a police cordon line outside the PolyU campus, forcing officers to retreat. An officer was struck by a petrol bomb, but he was not injured as he was wearing protective gear.
At around 7.24 pm that night, police – together with an armoured truck – advanced towards the protesters. Shortly after, the police officer earlier hit by a petrol bomb subdued Choi in front of a commercial building near Austin Road. Choi was wearing a gas mask when she was arrested.
Choi’s lawyer said during mitigation that the defendant, a member of the city’s under-20 women’s football team, aimed to become a national representative for Hong Kong. She had not been able to train or compete overseas this year due to the case.
Before she was charged, when she did train overseas, Choi also did not abscond when she had the chance due to her “deep love for Hong Kong,” the lawyer added.
Deputy District Judge Ada Yim said that the other two co-defendants in the case had left the city, with only Choi brave enough to face the consequences. She also said that Choi’s bail conditions were revoked in March 2020, meaning she no longer had to report to police regularly as part of those conditions, giving the defendant the impression that the case had concluded.
But Yim said rioting was a serious offence and a deterrent sentence was necessary. The judge added that she had handled other rioting cases related to this incident and had observed that violence erupted further into the night.
Choi had joined the riot for at least 45 minutes, and the protesters’ use of Molotov cocktails and petrol bombs at the scene added to the gravity of her offence, Yim said. It was only “fortunate” that the police officer who was hit by the petrol bomb did not sustain injuries, but the damages caused to nearby businesses were “unmeasurable,” she added.
Yim handed Choi a starting sentence of four years and three months. Choi was given a one-third sentence discount due to her guilty plea.
On top of that, the judge further reduced her sentence as Choi was only 16 when the riot took place and she had shown genuine remorse. She had also proactively engaged in sports, Yim said, and represented Hong Kong.
“[Choi] has grown from an impulsive youngster to become a responsible adult,” Yim added in Cantonese, ultimately sentencing her to a jail term of two years and four months.
PolyU siege
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.”
PolyU was sieged by riot police for almost two weeks in November 2019. Protesters barricaded themselves inside the red-brick campus in Hung Hom, and towards the end of the siege, some fled the university by scaling down ropes or escaping through sewers.
The protests and subsequent arrests in Yau Ma Tei on November 18 came after online calls to “rescue” those inside the university by taking to the streets nearby to divert policing efforts.
According to The Witness, as of last November, 333 people have been charged with rioting in cases linked to the PolyU siege. The conviction rate was 96 per cent, with the legal procedures of almost a third of the cases have not concluded.
Protests erupted in Hong Kong in June 2019 over a controversial extradition bill that would have allowed the transfer of fugitives to mainland China to stand trial. They ballooned into wider demonstrations against Hong Kong and Beijing authorities, as well as alleged police brutality against protesters.
The demonstrations died down amid the Covid-19 pandemic and Beijing’s imposition of a national security law.
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