Hong Kong protests: barista guilty of rioting, arson gets 4½ years’ jail for role in fire outside police station
- Judge rules Siu Lok-ting, 27, one of about a hundred protesters gathered the night of September 22, 2019, had thrown a plant and pieces of cardboard into a street bonfire, posing a danger to passers-by
- ‘My future was in her hands,’ distraught father cries out as family breadwinner sentenced; Siu is the sixth Hongkonger to be convicted of rioting following trial
Siu Lok-ting was sentenced at the District Court on Wednesday for her participation in the demonstration on the night of September 22, 2019, when more than 100 protesters confronted officers outside Mong Kok Police Station and set fires on a nearby thoroughfare.
Judge Frankie Yiu Fun-che noted that despite the lack of premeditation, the violent incident was made serious by the significant threat of injury the fire on the road posed to passers-by.
After sentencing, Siu’s father broke down in the public gallery, calling it “ruthless” for the government to “slaughter the youth”.
“Why do you have to do this to the breadwinner of a family? My future was in her hands,” he said.
The court heard Siu was spotted among the hundred-odd protesters who gathered at the junction of Nathan Road and Prince Edward Road West that night. She was seen in news clippings burning a plant and pieces of cardboard near the junction at around 11pm.