Hong Kong protests: two men plead guilty over roles in Yuen Long unrest
- Law Hiu-fung, 17, pleads guilty to unlawful assembly, while Cheung Yu-tai, 32, admits to rioting and false imprisonment
- District Judge Frankie Yiu will hear mitigation and sentence the two men on January 13
Two Hong Kong men have pleaded guilty over their involvement in an unlawful assembly last year that escalated into a riot when a passer-by was attacked after being accused of tearing messages of support for anti-government protesters from a wall.
The District Court heard protesters had gathered at Yoho Mall in Yuen Long on the night of September 21, 2019, to mark an indiscriminate attack on commuters and anti-government demonstrators by white-clad men at the local railway station two months earlier.
The group later moved towards the town centre and the assembly took a violent turn in the early hours of September 22 when they targeted a passer-by in a white shirt, 52-year-old Li Tak-chung, who was on his way home after work.
Li was prevented from leaving the scene, even after he boarded a taxi, as protesters surrounded the vehicle and pulled him out, then hit him on the head with a metal bar-like object and smashed his phone, following accusations he had once torn off notes from a so-called Lennon Wall. He later needed seven stitches to his head.
On Tuesday, student Law Hiu-fung, 17, pleaded guilty to one count of unlawful assembly, while delivery worker Cheung Yu-tai, 32, admitted to a single count of rioting and another of false imprisonment.