Hong Kong man jailed for 11 months over social media posts calling for attacks on police and judges, spreading Covid-19

Repairman Chung Chi-chiu, 32, pleads guilty to three incitement charges in connection with posts on LIHKG forum between May 2021 and February 2022
Defendant called for attacks on police and judges, as well as spreading of coronavirus to end social-distancing curbs by ‘authoritarian’ government during pandemic

Hong Kong courts

Brian Wong

Published: 1:58pm, 12 May 2023

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A 32-year-old Hong Kong man has been jailed for nearly a year after he took to social media to urge others to attack judges and police, as well as encourage people to spread the coronavirus during the pandemic.

Repairman Chung Chi-chiu pleaded guilty to three incitement charges at the District Court on Friday in relation to his statements on the popular LIHKG forum between May 2021 and February last year.

Police arrested the defendant after he proposed forcing city authorities to drop their zero-Covid strategy by actively transmitting the virus among the community in a social media post that attracted more than 3,500 likes.

Chung had suggested the “authoritarian” government would have no choice but to relax its stringent social-distancing rules if everyone was infected with the coronavirus.

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He also said the Omicron variant was weaker than influenza, while the media and “mentally retarded experts” had disseminated lies about its transmissibility.

“When the virus is spread to every nook and cranny in Hong Kong, the f***ing zero-infection [strategy] of the Communist Hong Kong government and its atrocious policies will literally come to nothing,” Chung wrote in the post.

The repairman also claimed to have visited multiple “blue” shops – the colour associated with pro-government supporters during the 2019 social unrest – at a time when he had shown Covid-19 symptoms.

Further investigation revealed that Chung had earlier published provocative statements on the forum using the same account.

The defendant urged others to imitate a knife attack on a police officer that occurred in July 2021. Photo: Xiaomei Chen

The court heard the defendant had insisted it was correct to kill every judicial officer, in response to official condemnations of threats made to a city judge in May 2021.

Two months later, Chung urged others to imitate a knife attack on a police officer in a shopping district and said further assaults could be made easier if supporters diverted the force’s attention by assembling in different parts of the city.

Chung was on Friday convicted of incitement to wound with intent, incitement to inflict grievous bodily harm with intent and incitement to expose others to the risk of infection.

Defence counsel Franco Kuan Bak-on said sentencing for his client should be measured in months as he lacked influence in society. He added that the defendant’s “nonsense” had failed to instigate others to act.

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Judge Clement Lee Hing-nin agreed that Chung’s offence was relatively minor as he appeared to have acted impulsively and lacked detailed planning.

He sentenced him to two to six months’ imprisonment for each charge and handed down a total of 11 months.

Chung has been remanded in custody for nearly five months and is expected to serve another 75 days before release.

Incitement to wound or inflict grievous bodily harm with intent is punishable by up to seven years in jail when heard at the District Court. The other charge carries a maximum jail sentence of six months.

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