Hong Kong’s first sentence for non-white-clad rioter in 2019 MTR station battle handed down

Accountant, 43, jailed after conviction for rioting at Yuen Long MTR station on July 21, 2019

Judge says Jacky Ho’s offence merited three-year prison term, but sentence reduced by three months for mitigating factors

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Jacky Ho leaves court after an appearance in 2022 on a charge of rioting at Yuen Long MTR station during the 2019 social disturbances.
Photo: Yik Yeung-man

Published: 8:04pm, 10 Apr 2024Updated: 12:49am, 11 Apr 2024

A Hong Kong accountant has been jailed for almost three years for rioting at an MTR station during the 2019 anti-government protests, the first sentence handed down to someone not part of a stick-wielding, white-clad mob at the scene.

District Court Judge Clement Lee Hing-nin on Wednesday sentenced Jacky Ho Tsan-kei, 43, to two years and nine months behind bars after he was convicted of a charge of rioting at Yuen Long station.

The offence is punishable by up to seven years in jail when tried in the District Court.

“It is regrettable that the defendant adopted an unlawful way to respond to injustice, squandering his promising future and losing freedom,” Lee told the court.

The District Court in Wan Chai, where an accountant was jailed for almost three years for rioting during a confrontation at Yuen Long MTR station during the 2019 protests. Photo: Nora Tam

Ho was seen to throw objects at the white-shirted group and to open an umbrella to shield himself and some people dressed in black- the colour favoured by anti-government protesters- in the station and on nearby Long Wo Road at around midnight.