Hong Kong News

Nonpartisan, Noncommercial, unconstrained.
Friday, Mar 29, 2024

First defendant to plead guilty to riot charge jailed for four years

Lifeguard Sin Ka-ho, 22, pushed police barricades and hurled objects at officers outside the Legislative Council on June 12. Officials called that clash a riot, a categorisation that fuelled what would become months of a wider anti-government movement

The first defendant to plead guilty to a riot charge in connection with last year’s anti-government protests in Hong Kong was jailed for four years by a court on Friday.

Lifeguard Sin Ka-ho, 22, rammed police barricades and hurled objects at officers outside the Legislative Council on June 12 after it announced the second reading of the now-withdrawn Fugitive Offenders Bill, originally scheduled for the day, would be postponed indefinitely.

District judge Amanda Woodcock said a deterrent sentence was needed as the case was very serious, with Sin caught red-handed after he “doggedly and relentlessly” assaulted police at the doors of the legislature in a “direct attack on the rule of law”.

“Such violence cannot be tolerated in a civilised and diversified society,” she said. “His best mitigation is his guilty plea.”

Government officials have called this protest a riot. But that categorisation quickly became one of the contentious points fuelling what would become months of a wider anti-government movement, with protesters naming the retraction of that label as one of their five demands.

More than 8,300 people have since been arrested. Among them, 1,617 have been prosecuted, with 595 facing a riot charge, which is punishable by 10 years in jail, but capped at seven years in the District Court.

Sin appeared at the District Court earlier this month and pleaded guilty to one count of rioting – for pushing police barricades and hurling two umbrellas, a helmet and other unknown objects at officers outside the complex’s public entrance.

He denied two other charges, alleging he resisted two unnamed officers on the same day. These two counts were kept on court file, meaning they cannot be pursued without the order of this court or the Court of Appeal.

Defence counsel Fiona Nam said there was not a day her client “hasn’t looked back in regret” at the events that led to his arrest, which were “completely out of character” for the first-time offender.

“I set a bad example for those young people yearning for change,” Sin wrote in a letter to the court. “If I had the opportunity to talk to them myself, I would urge them not resort to violence.”

His sentencing on Friday drew more than 100 people, with two courts set up for family, media and public attendance of the hearing, while dozens more waited in the corridor and lobby for news.

The judge said she had watched all security camera and media footage that showed how the protest descended into a riot, and the degree of violence used.

She observed that the defendant was clearly captured on camera standing in front of the crowd, where he violently rammed metal security barriers, hurled umbrellas like a spear and threw objects with force at nearby police officers backed up against the building, who in turn responded with tear gas.

“By then everyone around him and behind him had run away yet he alone continues to attack doggedly and relentlessly,” she said. “He was so intent on inflicting injury he didn’t run when everyone else ran and was caught.”

But Woodcock also observed from a 1970 court decision that a defendant’s individual acts cannot be considered in isolation from the overall violence involved, which she found to be large in scale, very serious and escalating until it was cut short by police use of tear gas.

Eight officers were injured while manning police lines.

Woodcock concluded the present case was more serious than the 2016 Mong Kok riot, which saw localist leader Edward Leung Tin-kei sentenced to six years in prison.

“A repeated attack on the police in the due execution of their duties, their duty to protect the Legislative Council, which led to a riot at the doors of the legislature of Hong Kong was a direct attack on the rule of law,” she said. “Such criminal conduct showed no respect for law and order nor the safety of law enforcement officers.”

So while the judge accepted the defendant was a young man of previous good character who had displayed genuine remorse, she concluded that proper weight must be given to public interest, over personal circumstances.

She adopted a sentence starting point of six years, before reducing it by one-third to credit Sin’s guilty plea.

The defendant was considering whether to appeal against the sentence.

Chief Inspector Basil Tang Yick-kay, of the organised crime and triad bureau, welcomed the court ruling, saying the jail term had sufficiently reflected the seriousness of the crime.

“I hope this sentence will offer our society an opportunity to reflect,” Tang said. “Violence cannot be romanticised or rationalised.”

Newsletter

Related Articles

Hong Kong News
0:00
0:00
Close
It's always the people with the dirty hands pointing their fingers
Paper straws found to contain long-lasting and potentially toxic chemicals - study
FTX's Bankman-Fried headed for jail after judge revokes bail
Blackrock gets half a trillion dollar deal to rebuild Ukraine
Steve Jobs' Son Launches Venture Capital Firm With $200 Million For Cancer Treatments
Google reshuffles Assistant unit, lays off some staffers, to 'supercharge' products with A.I.
End of Viagra? FDA approved a gel against erectile dysfunction
UK sanctions Russians judges over dual British national Kara-Murza's trial
US restricts visa-free travel for Hungarian passport holders because of security concerns
America's First New Nuclear Reactor in Nearly Seven Years Begins Operations
Southeast Asia moves closer to economic unity with new regional payments system
Political leader from South Africa, Julius Malema, led violent racist chants at a massive rally on Saturday
Today Hunter Biden’s best friend and business associate, Devon Archer, testified that Joe Biden met in Georgetown with Russian Moscow Mayor's Wife Yelena Baturina who later paid Hunter Biden $3.5 million in so called “consulting fees”
'I am not your servant': IndiGo crew member, passenger get into row over airline meal
Singapore Carries Out First Execution of a Woman in Two Decades Amid Capital Punishment Debate
Spanish Citizenship Granted to Iranian chess player who removed hijab
US Senate Republican Mitch McConnell freezes up, leaves press conference
Speaker McCarthy says the United States House of Representatives is getting ready to impeach Joe Biden.
San Francisco car crash
This camera man is a genius
3D ad in front of Burj Khalifa
Next level gaming
BMW driver…
Google testing journalism AI. We are doing it already 2 years, and without Google biased propoganda and manipulated censorship
Unlike illegal imigrants coming by boats - US Citizens Will Need Visa To Travel To Europe in 2024
Musk announces Twitter name and logo change to X.com
The politician and the journalist lost control and started fighting on live broadcast.
The future of sports
Unveiling the Black Hole: The Mysterious Fate of EU's Aid to Ukraine
Farewell to a Music Titan: Tony Bennett, Renowned Jazz and Pop Vocalist, Passes Away at 96
Alarming Behavior Among Florida's Sharks Raises Concerns Over Possible Cocaine Exposure
Transgender Exclusion in Miss Italy Stirs Controversy Amidst Changing Global Beauty Pageant Landscape
Joe Biden admitted, in his own words, that he delivered what he promised in exchange for the $10 million bribe he received from the Ukraine Oil Company.
TikTok Takes On Spotify And Apple, Launches Own Music Service
Global Trend: Using Anti-Fake News Laws as Censorship Tools - A Deep Dive into Tunisia's Scenario
Arresting Putin During South African Visit Would Equate to War Declaration, Asserts President Ramaphosa
Hacktivist Collective Anonymous Launches 'Project Disclosure' to Unearth Information on UFOs and ETIs
Typo sends millions of US military emails to Russian ally Mali
Server Arrested For Theft After Refusing To Pay A Table's $100 Restaurant Bill When They Dined & Dashed
The Changing Face of Europe: How Mass Migration is Reshaping the Political Landscape
China Urges EU to Clarify Strategic Partnership Amid Trade Tensions
The Last Pour: Anchor Brewing, America's Pioneer Craft Brewer, Closes After 127 Years
Democracy not: EU's Digital Commissioner Considers Shutting Down Social Media Platforms Amid Social Unrest
Sarah Silverman and Renowned Authors Lodge Copyright Infringement Case Against OpenAI and Meta
Why Do Tech Executives Support Kennedy Jr.?
The New York Times Announces Closure of its Sports Section in Favor of The Athletic
BBC Anchor Huw Edwards Hospitalized Amid Child Sex Abuse Allegations, Family Confirms
Florida Attorney General requests Meta CEO's testimony on company's platforms' alleged facilitation of illicit activities
The Distorted Mirror of actual approval ratings: Examining the True Threat to Democracy Beyond the Persona of Putin
40,000 child slaves in Congo are forced to work in cobalt mines so we can drive electric cars.
×