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First person convicted under Hong Kong national security law graduates from Ethics College
- Leon Tong, jailed for nine years in 2021, says at graduation ceremony he hopes to make amends for ‘disrespectful act towards the country’
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The first person convicted under Hong Kong’s national security law is among the inaugural batch of graduates of a full-time college for inmates and has pledged to make up for his “disrespectful act towards the country”.
Leon Tong Ying-kit, 27, shared his reflections at a graduation ceremony for the first cohort of the Ethics College in Stanley’s Pak Sha Wan Correctional Institution on Thursday, and expressed regret for crimes he committed in 2020, saying he had been misled by “biased comments and false information”.
Tong was sentenced to nine years in prison in 2021 for driving his motorcycle into a group of police officers while flying a flag bearing the slogan “Liberate Hong Kong; revolution of our times”, the rallying call of the 2019 anti-government protests.
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The former restaurant worker had been charged with inciting secession and committing a terrorist act under the national security law, imposed by Beijing in 2020 in the wake of the protests.
“I really hope to make amends for my disrespectful act towards the country, to use concrete actions to contribute to society,” said Tong, who was dressed in a navy blue graduation gown with green trim.
He said his supervisor under Project PATH, a rehabilitation scheme tailor-made for inmates jailed for protest-related offences, had referred him to the Ethics College.
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