Hong Kong protests: pleading guilty on petrol bomb charges, 23-year-old tells court he should have thought of his mother
- Defendant Yiu Siu-hong’s mother was diagnosed with terminal cancer a month after his arrest and died seven days after he finally secured bail
- The stage technician was arrested a clash between police at radical protesters in Tseung Kwan O on October 13
The District Court heard Yiu Siu-hong, 23, who pleaded guilty on Monday, had been torn between his family and the protest movement but had reflected on his actions since his arrest at the clash in Tseung Kwan O on October 13.
A month later, his mother was diagnosed with terminal lung cancer. She died seven days after he finally secured bail from the High Court on May 20, on the condition he obey a 21-hour daily curfew.
Defence counsel Steven Kwan Man-wai said his client was genuinely remorseful, revealing that Yiu had given up school to become his family’s sole breadwinner after his mother first fell ill in 2017, and had only been allowed to see her once during his seven months in remand.
“I deeply regret and blame myself,” Kwan read from his client’s handwritten mitigation letter to the court. “I have contemplated my actions and come to understand that violence cannot solve problems and only exacerbates contradictions and conflicts between both sides.”
Other letters from his teachers, football coach and employer depicted him as a “very responsible” person who “would stick up for others when he saw injustice”, Kwan said.
Yiu pleaded guilty to one count of possession of an offensive weapon and another of attempted arson with intent, an offence punishable by life imprisonment but capped at seven years at the District Court.
His case centred on a protest that began at 6.15pm on October 13, when about 40 to 50 protesters set up barricades and blocked the junction of Tong Chun Street and Tong Ming Street in the residential neighbourhood.