Hong Kong protests: 13 jailed for up to 4 years for rioting near Beijing’s liaison office in 2019
- Ten men and five women, aged between 20 and 34, were accused of taking part in riot that stretched several blocks from Morrison Street to Rumsey Street
- Two out of 15 defendants spared jail time as presiding judge attributes cause of violence to incitement by ‘key opinion leaders with ulterior motives’
The 13 were among 15 defendants sentenced at West Kowloon Court on Wednesday for their role in the incident which occurred in Sheung Wan on July 28, 2019, more than a month after protests broke out over a contentious extradition bill.
The two other defendants were spared jail time and sentenced to either correctional training or hard labour given their relatively young age and remorse for the offence.
The proposed legislation, which would have enabled the transfer of fugitives to mainland China, was stalled in mid-June in 2019 following a series of large-scale demonstrations, with Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor opting to fully withdraw the bill three months later.
District Judge Ernest Lin Kam-hung called the July 28 protest a “gory carnival”, adding participants had no real reason to be involved as the bill had already been suspended at the time of the clashes.
“I understand there were forces and key opinion leaders with ulterior motives who professed themselves as young people’s tutors and offered them material and ethical support … prompting them to take part in this gory carnival,” the judge said.