Nine people have been sentenced to up to four years in jail in Hong Kong for rioting near a university in one of the most violent episodes of the 2019 anti-government protests.

The defendants penalised on rioting charges at the District Court on Saturday included a social worker, a nurse and an engineer, who were found to have contributed to the disturbance in Tsim Sha Tsui by boosting protesters’ morale with their presence in the early hours of November 19, 2019.

The trial earlier this year heard that hundreds of protesters had gathered in the area of Austin Road, Kimberly Road, Observatory Road and Hau Fook Street, following online calls to rescue their comrades trapped inside Polytechnic University (PolyU) by diverting police attention.

The confrontation at PolyU followed a turbulent week of street violence, chaos and traffic disruption across Hong Kong, with protesters demanding accountability for police use of force during the 2019 unrest.

Police had besieged PolyU after protesters turned the Hung Hom campus into their stronghold. Their comrades attempted to give them a window of escape by staging various protests in the university’s vicinity.

Protesters disrupt traffic on Nathan Road in Tsim Sha Tsui in 2019.

The protest in the present case saw a section of Chatham Road South barricaded with bricks, rubbish bins, foam boxes and construction material, with some demonstrators hurling petrol bombs at riot officers starting at 8pm on November 18.

The confrontation later descended into a guerilla-style battle that lasted five hours, followed by another round of firebomb attacks at 2.30am the next morning.

The nine defendants were arrested on Hau Fook Street between 3.36am and 3.53am during a dispersal operation.

Defence lawyers argued the nine did not intentionally remain at the scene of the disturbance, with some calling their friends and relatives to the witness box in a bid to portray the accused as innocent passers-by.

Judge Clement Lee Hing-nin rejected those contentions in his verdict earlier this month by referring to the circumstances of their arrests and protest equipment in their possessions.

Scenes of chaos near PolyU in Hung Hom.

Lee on Saturday said the riot was organised and premeditated to weaken the ability of police to close off the university and arrest the besieged protesters.

“Although the defendants hoped to change society for the better, they had expressed their aspirations in the wrong way,” the judge said.

Lee sentenced five of the defendants to 35 months in jail for their lesser roles in the riot: social worker Ho Ho-shan, 22; wedding decoration worker Yeung Shuk-chun, 32; university graduate Hui Cheuk-ling, 23; engineer Cheung Kai-hang, 27; and nurse Pang Siu-hin, 24.

The judge refused to impose similar sentences on the remaining four – porter Leung Chin-wing, 36, salesman Lee Chun-hin, 23, cook Ho Kwok-tung, 26, and clerk Li Cheong-yuen, 21 – in light of evidence showing they were directly involved in the violence.

Li, who was seen assaulting police officers at the scene, was jailed for 35 months, reduced from a starting point of 50 months in light of his guilty plea.

Leung and Lee Chun-hin each received 39 months after they were found to have handled flammable liquids during the protest.

Ho, who was additionally convicted of possessing items in the hope of vandalising property, was slapped with the heaviest sentence of four years.

Rioting is punishable by up to seven years at the District Court.