Hong Kong protests: cleaner gets 80 hours of community service for vandalising police station wall, in first sentence against a demonstrator during months-long unrest
- Cheung Wing-kei threw a metal machinery part and damaged the wall of Castle Peak Police Station in Tuen Mun during protests on August 9
- Magistrate felt he had neglected the safety of officers, still spared him a jail term as attack was not pre-planned and he had a clean record
A cleaner who admitted damaging the wall of a Hong Kong police station was ordered to do 80 hours of community service by a court on Friday – the first anti-government protester to be sentenced over the months of social unrest.
Cheung Wing-kei, 37, pleaded guilty to one count of criminal damage, after he left a two-centimetre-long scratch on the wall of Castle Peak Police Station in Tuen Mun in the early morning of August 9, when anti-government demonstrators besieged the facility to protest against what they claimed was excessive force used on them.
The court heard Cheung, who was subdued by officers at the scene, yelled “damn black cops” during the assembly and threw a metal machinery part towards the wall.
Out of more than 1,180 arrestees over the months-long movement against the extradition bill – which the city’s leader has announced will be withdrawn, Cheung was the first protester to receive his sentence.
More than 191 people have been charged over a series of incidents, ranging from clashes with police, unlawful assemblies to violent disputes.