Three Hong Kong protesters become first to be convicted of rioting during Mong Kok clashes
Judge stresses ‘violence is violence’ as he finds trio threw glass bottles and a bamboo stick at police
The District Court will sentence the trio on Friday on one joint count of rioting, which is punishable by up to 10 years in prison.
Violence is violence ... glass bottles can kill people
Prosecutors are seeking a deterrent sentence to “address public interest” in light of the disruption to public order that saw a hawker control operation turn ugly, with a police officer firing warning shots as protesters launched bricks and started fires that Lunar New Year.
The defence called for shorter jail terms – if not a suspended sentence or an order to attend a training centre for the youngest, 20-year-old defendant – as they countered that the event was an isolated, spontaneous incident and did not happen again.
But judge Sham Siu-man questioned why sentencing should not follow the case of Vietnamese refugees rioting in Whitehead camp in 1989, in which the Court of Appeal ruled that five years was a suitable term for conviction after trial. “I can’t see any major difference,” he said.
Students Hui Ka-ki, 23, and Mak Tsz-hei, 20, and cook Sit Tat-wing, 33, denied rioting, arguing instead that they were observers on the sidelines of the incident.