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Billy Chiu Hin-chung is among the four defendants accused of breaking into PLA barracks. He appears outside Eastern Court in Sai Wan Ho in 2014. Photo: Nora Tam

Activist jailed for obstructing police during Occupy protest

An activist who was previously given a suspended prison term for trespassing at the People's Liberation Army barracks in Central was sentenced to three weeks in jail yesterday for obstructing and resisting police at an Occupy protest last year.

Deputy Magistrate Stephanie Tsui May-har said Billy Chiu Hin-chung, 30, had shown no remorse and that the offences involved police officers who should be subject to protection.

"A few police officers were injured," she said.

Chiu was convicted earlier in Kwun Tong Court for charging a police line in Mong Kok on October 17 and resisting arrest.

After handing down the sentence, Tsui noted the convictions came four months after Chiu was given a suspended two-week sentence for unlawfully entering the PLA barracks in June.

"The case you were convicted of [at the time] was of a serious nature," she told Chiu.

Tsui, after listening to counsel Jonathan Man Ho-ching's mitigation for Chiu, said she saw no reason not to activate the suspended sentence. She added one week and sentenced Chiu to a total of four weeks in jail.

The court previously heard that Chiu clashed with shield-wielding police officers posted to Shantung Street to help with the first clearance operation in the Mong Kok occupation that night.

Chiu was arrested and escorted to a building, during which he was accused of kicking a police officer. He faced one more count of assaulting a police officer and pleaded not guilty to all three.

A video played in court showed Chiu accusing police of making false accusations. He was acquitted of assault as the magistrate decided the contact between him and the alleged victim could have been accidental.

Chiu, of the Self-determination Party of Tibet and Hong Kong, was granted bail pending an appeal. A source familiar with the matter said he was unlikely to raise enough money to fulfil the bail conditions.

This article appeared in the South China Morning Post print edition as: Activist jailed for obstructing police
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