Hong Kong protests: trio in foiled plot to vandalise railway station jailed for 1½ years each

Li Kwan-ho, Ryan Li and Ivan Cheung jailed for planning to vandalise the Tuen Mun Ferry Pier MTR light rail station on September 5, 2019

Dashcam footage in group’s car revealed discussion of plans to ‘mess with the Communist Party’s railway’

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Li Kwan-ho, Ryan Li and Ivan Cheung were jailed for plotting to vandalise an MTR station during the 2019 social unrest. Photo: Nora Tam

Published: 6:37pm, 27 Jan 2022

Three men have been jailed for 1½ years each for plotting to vandalise an MTR station during Hong Kong’s social unrest of 2019.

The trio, all in their 20s, went on trial at the District Court last month on a joint count of conspiracy to commit criminal damage over a plan to vandalise the Tuen Mun Ferry Pier MTR light rail station on September 5, 2019.

Judge Frankie Yiu Fun-che noted the plot was just one of several attempts by radical protesters to target MTR facilities to disrupt public order and social harmony.

The judge set a starting point for sentencing at two years imprisonment in light of the premeditated nature of the crime, before reducing one-fourth of each defendant’s term as the plot had failed to take place.

City railway operator MTR Corporation was frequently targeted by anti-government protesters during the summer of 2019, who accused the company of assisting police officers in dispersal and arrest operations at demonstrations.

Last month’s trial heard that police had intercepted the three men at around 1.45am on the day concerned after they were spotted behaving suspiciously inside a white car parked outside a fish market near Butterfly Beach.