Hong Kong protests: pro-independence group member jailed for 12 years over explosives find wanted to ‘create terror’ in city, judge says
- Louis Lo was arrested in 2019 during the biggest seizure of bomb-making material in 20 years
- The former Hong Kong National Front member had admitted to being in possession of 1kg of triacetone triperoxide
Hong Kong’s High Court has jailed a former member of a now-dissolved pro-independence group for 12 years for a bomb plot in the heaviest sentence to date over charges stemming from the anti-government protests and civil unrest of 2019.
In sentencing Louis Lo Yat-sun on Friday, Mr Justice Andrew Chan Hing-wai said the 29-year-old defendant “came close to declaring war” on society by creating “terror among citizens” with his involvement in Hong Kong’s largest seizure of high explosives in two decades.
The judge compared Lo’s crime to that committed by the late Yip Kai-foon, the notorious gangster who was jailed for 18 years in 1997 for possession of nearly 2kg of trinitrotoluene, or TNT.
Lo had pleaded guilty earlier to one count of keeping explosives with intent to endanger life or property, after police seized 1kg of triacetone triperoxide, also known as TATP, in an industrial building in July 2019.
He appeared calm upon hearing the sentence, and waved goodbye to his family and friends in the courtroom before being taken away by prison officers.
Despite a lack of evidence linking Lo to the civil unrest, the judge ruled that the defendant had intended to use the explosives to subvert the government and push for the city’s independence, given the propaganda materials found in the industrial unit and his home, as well as two manuals on explosives on his mobile phone.