Hong Kong protests: pair jailed for up to 4 years each for running explosives lab in city flat
- Tung Sheung-lam, 25, and Ting Chin-fung, 19, produced explosives and petrol bombs from a makeshift lab in Tai Kok Tsui during the 2019 protests
- Drones modified for dropping firebombs from a height were also found in the factory as part of a criminal operation displaying ‘elements of terrorism’
Two Hong Kong students have been jailed for up to four years each for making explosives and firebombs during the 2019 anti-government protests in a plot the judge described as bearing “elements of terrorism”.
Tung Sheung-lam, 25, and Ting Chin-fung, 19, previously admitted producing gunpowder, rocket candies, thermite and petrol bombs at an explosives factory housed in a Tai Kok Tsui tenement flat. The arsenal was developed for use in the often-violent social unrest of two years ago that was sparked by a later-withdrawn extradition bill.
Passing sentence at the District Court on Thursday, Judge Clement Lee Hing-nin said the makeshift laboratory was well hidden in the community and, with the large amount of dangerous chemicals stored inside, posed a significant risk to public safety.
“The crime scene was akin to an explosives factory,” Lee said. “The defendants’ criminal intent was serious and contained elements of terrorism.”
The court earlier heard the improvised laboratory was used to store 723 grams of potassium nitrate, 413 grams of carbon and 457 grams of sulphur – enough raw ingredients to produce 700 grams of gunpowder.
The potassium nitrate could also be used alongside the 4.2kg of sucrose in the flat to make rocket candies, but the defendants were still investigating how to manufacture the sugar-fuelled propellants at the time of their arrests.
Investigators also found 666 grams of a mixture containing powdered aluminium, iron oxide and magnesium carbonate – all common ingredients of thermite, a substance that burns at very high temperatures. However, the mixture at the lab was incapable of ignition as there were miscalculations in the ingredients’ proportions.