Hong Kong protests: Telegram group administrator pleads guilty to 9 incitement charges tied to violent 2019 clashes
- Insurance agent Siu Cheung-lung provided subscribers to his messaging app channel with bomb-making instructions, urged them to attack police officers
- The 33-year-old, whose followers bought HK$1.64 million worth of products he advertised, also called for violence against those from the city’s ‘blue ribbon’ camp
Insurance agent Siu Cheung-lung was convicted at the District Court on Monday after he admitted publishing 1,197 provocative posts on the encrypted messaging app over a five-month period.
The court heard the 33-year-old defendant attracted 21,862 subscribers to his channel “The Cheating Master, Never Forget Why You Started” between October 7, 2019, and March 27 last year.
Group members also bought HK$1.64 million (US$210,000) in hygiene products from Siu after he claimed to be in financial trouble.
The charges Siu faced centred on 17 posts made between November 3 and 19, 2019, a period that featured some of the most violent clashes between protesters and police.
Prosecutor Jessie Sham Wing-yan said eight of those posts were aimed at abetting a riot at Chinese University on November 12, when Siu called on protesters to invade the school’s laboratories to produce explosives and ambush police officers using the home-made bombs.
In other messages, the defendant gave out instructions for making bombs that used petrol, thermites and chlorine gas, called for the mass obstruction of railways, and urged protesters to physically attack those who held opposing political views with pipes and corrosives.
Under caution, Siu confessed he had written the posts with the aim of spreading dissatisfaction against police and “blue ribbons” – a slang term referring to people who support the government and the force – and to create a following that would buy his hygiene products.
Siu pleaded guilty on Monday to three counts each of incitement of arson and public nuisance as well as one count each of inciting others to riot, cause grievous bodily harm and administer poison or other destructive or noxious substances.
The prosecution agreed to shelve the remaining count of money laundering related to his hygiene-product earnings after he pleaded guilty to the incitement charges.
In mitigation, defence counsel Marco Li Wai-kin said his client had lost his mind because of his “blind pursuit for justice”, urging the court to show leniency given the strong support offered by his family and friends.
“What happened in 2019 was a huge shock to the younger generation,” the lawyer submitted. “The defendant was unable to cope with his emotions and foolishly committed the offences.”
Siu, who has been in custody since his arrest in March, will be sentenced by Judge Anthony Kwok Kai-on December 6. He faces up to seven years in jail.
