A 50-year-old man left a bomb hoax message in a coffee shop at the IFC mall claiming Xinjiang Muslims had placed explosives at the centre, Eastern Court heard on Wednesday.
Lincoln Mok Tze-kan yesterday pleaded not guilty to one count of communicating false information as to the existence of a bomb, and another similar charge of staging a bomb hoax at a Mid-Levels eatery in 2012.
The court heard that a note was found inside a newspaper at the Starbucks coffee shop in the shopping centre on March 2, 2014.
Reading the contents of the letter in court, prosecutor James Sherry said: "We Xinjiang Muslims have already laid a number of bombs at IFC and a big explosion is going to happen quickly. Hong Kong will become last night's Kunming. Down with [Chief Executive] Leung Chun-ying, of the Chinese Communist."
The court heard that the message was written in both traditional and simplified Chinese characters. Thirty-one people died in a terror attack in Kunming, Yunnan, the day before the message was found.
Sherry said that Ng Chui-fung found the note "with very horrible contents" inside a copy of Sing Tao Daily at the coffee shop in the mall.