TWO unemployed men were yesterday sentenced to two months' jail after Western Court ruled they were at the forefront of violence which broke out when a 500-strong procession petitioned the Governor to let mainland wives into Hongkong.
Magistrate Mr Hugh Sinclair found Cheng Kwok-wah, 42, and Wong Man-ho, 38, each guilty of one count of assaulting a police officer and one count of unlawful assembly.
He told the defendants that the procession, which took place on July 12 last year from Wan Chai to Government House, turned into a mob which ''from all appearances was not so much interested in presenting an informal petition as standing against the police''.
He added: ''I have no doubt that many in the procession would have been sucked into the vortex of excitement.
''In so far as those two instances were concerned of which you have been convicted, you were creating that vortex by your own examples.'' Cheng had pleaded not guilty to six summonses of assaulting a police officer and to one count of taking part in unlawful assembly.
Wong had denied one count of assaulting a police officer and one count of taking part in unlawful assembly.
The case against a third defendant, Chan Mei-wah, 43, who has pleaded not guilty to one count of taking part in unlawful assembly, has been adjourned until April 23 because he is suffering from liver cancer and requires medical treatment.