Hong Kong protests: magistrate rejects prosecutors’ request to increase penalty for suspect who had vandalised police truck
- Judge says detention five months after initial sentence inappropriate for Chan Yip-wan, 18, who was also found with flammable liquids at protest last year
- Prosecutors earlier argued punishment should be labour-intensive detention to strike a balance between punishment, deterrence and rehabilitation
A magistrate has turned down prosecutors’ request to increase the penalty for a young protester who was spared a custodial sentence after being convicted of vandalising a police water cannon and carrying flammable liquids to an anti-government protest in Hong Kong last year.
Principal Magistrate Bina Chainrai maintained her decision to impose an 18-month probation on Chan Yip-wan, as she found it inappropriate to send the 18-year-old student to correctional training five months after he had received his initial sentence last summer.
Chan, who is now studying commerce at the HKU School of Professional and Continuing Education, had committed the offences in the demonstration on Hong Kong Island on January 1, 2020.
The Eastern Court heard that Chan, then 17, hurled a brick at a water cannon vehicle at 7pm as police were dispersing protesters in Wan Chai and Causeway Bay. He was later subdued by three officers, who found a bottle of paint thinner, a box cutter, a lighter and a hammer in his possession.
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The brick left an 8cm (3 inch) scratch on the police vehicle, which cost the force HK$9,900 to repair.