Hong Kong protests: first defendant to plead guilty to riot charge jailed for four years
- Lifeguard Sin Ka-ho, 22, pushed police barricades and hurled objects at officers outside the Legislative Council on June 12
- Officials called that clash a riot, a categorisation that fuelled what would become months of a wider anti-government movement
District judge Amanda Woodcock said a deterrent sentence was needed as the case was very serious, with Sin caught red-handed after he “doggedly and relentlessly” assaulted police at the doors of the legislature in a “direct attack on the rule of law”.
“Such violence cannot be tolerated in a civilised and diversified society,” she said. “His best mitigation is his guilty plea.”
Government officials have called this protest a riot. But that categorisation quickly became one of the contentious points fuelling what would become months of a wider anti-government movement, with protesters naming the retraction of that label as one of their five demands.
More than 8,300 people have since been arrested. Among them, 1,617 have been prosecuted, with 595 facing a riot charge, which is punishable by 10 years in jail, but capped at seven years in the District Court.