Six Hong Kong inmates convicted over last year's riot at the Hei Ling Chau Drug Addiction Treatment Centre had their sentences almost doubled by the Court of Appeal yesterday.
Acting Chief Judge Michael Stuart-Moore said the original sentences were manifestly inadequate in terms of the scale of the riot and gravity of the offences. Cheung Chun-chin, 23, Cheung Siu-wa, 26, Wong Chi-fai, 27, and Wong Tin-wai, 25, had their sentences increased from two to 3.5 years. They had pleaded guilty to rioting on June 4 last year.
Their co-defendants, Wong Chan, 24, and Choi Kar-leung, 44, had their three-year sentences increased to 5.5 years. Both denied one count of rioting.
Mr Justice Stuart-Moore said the court would have imposed an extra six months on each of the defendants but was unable to because the proceedings were to review the terms imposed - not to re-sentence the defendants.
Director of Public Prosecutions Grenville Cross, SC, for the Secretary for Justice, argued the sentences imposed by Deputy District Court Judge Colin Mackintosh were 'lenient in the extreme' and not adequate enough to punish the defendants for their active involvement in a serious and protracted riot.
The court heard that on the evening of June 4 last year, fighting erupted between Vietnamese and local inmates at the centre where 446 inmates were accommodated. This led to rioting outside a dormitory.
