Hong Kong protests: six men on trial for Yuen Long mob attack were wrongly identified, lawyers argue

Lawyers for six men charged over a 2019 mob attack on commuters and protesters at a Hong Kong railway station have said their clients were wrongly identified, insisting some of them were caught up in the violence as peacemakers or bystanders.

The defence closed its case on Wednesday at the District Court trial of the six, who are accused of rioting and wounding at Yuen Long MTR station between July 21 and 22 that year.

Prosecutors urged Judge Eddie Yip Chor-man to find the defendants guilty based on the legal principle of joint enterprise, saying the six shared a common purpose as a white-clad mob to commit a breach of the peace by using violence in and around the facility.

While security cameras showed that not all defendants had resorted to violence, the prosecution argued they were still guilty of their respective offences because their “voluntary presence” at the scene had aided and abetted the mob in carrying out the attack.

During the 24-day trial, the court heard the men in white, most of whom were armed with rattan canes or wooden sticks, first launched the attack inside the station at 10.40pm on July 21. The assailants struck again near Exit J in the early hours of the next day, followed by another incident in the connected Yoho Mall.

The six are the first batch of defendants to stand trial over the incident, which marked one of the most violent episodes of the months-long 2019 anti-government protests.

Four of them – transport worker Wong Chi-wing, 56, cable worker Wong Ying-kit, 49, village representative Tang Ying-bun, 62, and electrician Choi Lap-ki, 40 – were said to be among 50 men who clashed with a group of about 100 mostly black-clad people on the station’s concourse, and later aboard a train to Tuen Mun.