Hongkonger jailed for 7 years, 4 months for possessing guns in case linked to 2019 bomb plot
Hong Kong Free Press
A woman who pleaded guilty to possessing firearms and bullets without a license in a case linked to a thwarted bomb plot in 2019 has been sentenced to seven years and four months in jail.
Chung Suet-ying, 33, appeared at High Court on Friday for sentencing. She earlier pleaded guilty to one count of “possession of arms or ammunition without license,” punishable by up to 14 years behind bars.
Chung was among six defendants who pleaded guilty in April as 14 went on trial over the bomb plot, planned to murder police officers at a rally on December 8, 2019, during the protests and unrest that year.
A nine-member jury on Thursday convicted one and cleared six others who pleaded not guilty to charges laid under the UN (Anti-Terrorism Measures) Ordinance – the first time prosecutors had invoked the law since it was enacted in 2002.
See also: Jury convicts 1, clears 6 over 2019 bomb plot in Hong Kong’s first UN anti-terror trial
Prosecutors argued that the defendants were members of two radical groups – including one called “Dragon Slayers” – which planned to set off two bombs along the route of the rally in Hennessey Road, Wan Chai, while a gunman would open fire at police from a nearby building.
Police seized two home-made bombs at Wan Chai’s Wah Yan College. They also found an AR-15 rifle, a pistol and hundreds of bullets at the Tai Po residency Chung shared with David Su, her then boyfriend.
During Su’s arrest on December 20, 2019, he fired a shot but no one was hit. He later pleaded guilty and became a prosecution witness during the 81-day trial.
‘Turbulent past’
High Court Judge Judianna Barnes on Friday said she believed Chung, who had been remanded in custody since her arrest in October 2020, was “genuinely remorseful.”
The judge also said there was no evidence to suggest Chung had used the firearms, and that she had only committed the offence out of a desire to maintain her relationship with Su.
“You had quite a turbulent past and you mistakenly fell for Su,” Barnes told Chung in Cantonese, citing mitigation letters written by her mother and other family members that testified to her good character.
She added that Chung had not requested a lesser sentence in her own mitigation letter, pleading instead for an “appropriate” sentence. “That deserves appreciation,” the judge said.
But Barnes also said a deterrent sentence was “inevitable” given the seriousness of the case.
She said Chung had lived with Su even though she must have known that the man was avoiding police after the plot at the centre of the case was thwarted.
Chung was also present when Su fired the shot resisting his arrest, Barnes said, adding that the weapons and the bullets had not been kept in secure locations.
Chung had a 2018 conviction for taking part in an unlawful assembly but that would not constitute an aggravating factor for sentencing, Barnes said.
Barnes set a starting sentence at 10 years in jail and gave the defendant a 25 per cent discount in recognition of her guilty plea.
She took a further two months away in consideration of Chung’s positive development in custody and low chance of re-offending, making the total jail term seven years and four months.
Chung appeared calm upon hearing the sentence. People sitting in the public gallery waved at her as she was walked away by correctional officers.
‘Mastermind’
Earlier in Friday’s hearing, defendant Ng Chi-hung, who also pleaded guilty, appeared in High Court for mitigation
Prosecutors said Ng was the leader of the unnamed radical group that partnered with Dragon Slayers and the “mastermind” of the alleged bomb attack. He faces up to life behind bars.
His lawyer told the court that Ng, who was 23 years old at the time of the offence, was an intelligent student with good merits during his school years and the offence did not reflect his true character, according to local media reports.
But Barnes urged the lawyers to provide more cases relevant to the offence of “conspiracy to commit bombing of prescribed objects” and had postponed the sentencing of Ng.
Cheung Chun-fu and Christian Lee, both acquitted by the jury on Thursday, were in the High Court to observe the proceedings on Friday.
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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