Hong Kong radiation therapist found guilty of inciting attacks on police during 2019 protests
- Judge says Yeung Sheung-wa’s comment on Reddit-like platform LIHKG showed clear intent to encourage violence against police officers
Deputy District Judge Veronica Heung Shuk-han ruled Yeung Sheung-wa, who was arrested in 2022, was guilty of incitement to wound with intent over a comment he made on the Reddit-like platform LIHKG, popular among protesters during the unrest.
The comment, posted by Yeung in December 2019, asked for platform users’ views on whether protesters should attack or even kill encircled police officers, among other options, in a thread discussing possible tactics for evading capture.
Heung on Saturday said Yeung’s case involved three elements, which were whether the defendant wrote the comment, if it constituted an act of illegally inciting others to injure police officers and the author’s intentions.
The judge said that in relation to the second element most of the discussion on the chat thread focused on how protesters could avoid capture or help those who were detained, with the ultimate goal being to successfully free those being held.
“The comment by the defendant was to raise a question about what they wanted to do to police after they have successfully encircled the officers,” Heung said in a written judgment. “It uses the form of a question to guide readers to think and raises a suggestion.
“This reflects the meaning and reasonable use of the comment involved in the case, which is to bring up the topic of maliciously hurting police officers, which no one had previously mentioned in the discussion agenda.”