University student pleads guilty to faking withdrawal applications in Hong Kong’s organ donation system

Wong Tsz-shing, 20, a student at the University of Hong Kong, on Wednesday pleaded guilty to one count of criminal damage by interfering with the organ donation system through inputting personal details of the donors on their behalf without consent, including those of lawmaker Junius Ho Kwan-yiu and former chief executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor.

Eastern Court Magistrate Stephanie Tsui May-har heard that Wong had found the personal information from a doxxing website, after he read the news about the Hong Kong government’s proposal for the cross-border donation mechanism with mainland China.

The collaboration mechanism between Hong Kong and the mainland is expected to be set up to match patients in need of transplants with potential donors under the scheme proposed by the city’s health authorities in May last year.

It sparked controversy over unverified claims about Beijing harvesting political prisoners’ organs and the transparency of the mainland’s healthcare system.

Wong, majoring in economics and public administration, told the court that he had “developed his own opinion” on the scheme and was trying to express it by interfering with the organ donation system.

In mitigation, Wong expressed remorse and said the conviction had dashed his hopes of becoming a teacher and cost him a once-in-a-lifetime chance to study in the UK.