Hong Kong court sentences 7 men, including ex-MP, for rioting during 2019 protests

Pro-democracy lawmaker Lam Cheuk-ting, center, makes a five-finger gesture to signify “Five demands – not one less” as he is surrounded by police during a press conference to mark the one-year anniversary of at the Yuen Long subway attack. at a subway station in Hong Kong on July 21, 2020. (Kin Cheung/AP)

HONG KONG — A Hong Kong judge on Thursday convicted seven people, including a former pro-democracy lawmaker, of rioting during mob violence at a subway station at the height of anti-government protests in July 2019.

Prosecutors accused former lawmaker Lam Cheuk-ting and six other defendants of provoking members of a group of about 100 men armed with wooden poles and metal rods who attacked protesters and bystanders at a train station. The men, all dressed in white shirts in contrast to the black worn by the protesters, claimed they were protecting their homeland in Yuen Long, a residential neighborhood in Hong Kong’s New Territories.

Dozens of people, including Lam, were injured in the violence, a key chapter that escalated the protest movement as the public criticized the police for their delayed response. The landmark ruling could shape the city’s historical narrative about the incident.

Judge Stanley Chan ruled that Lam was not acting as a mediator as he claimed, but rather was trying to exploit the situation for political gain.

He said Lam’s words to the men in white shirts had “fanned the flames”.

The seven defendants are due to be sentenced in February. Several members of the public sitting in the gallery wept after hearing the verdicts. Others waved at the defendants, one of them shouting to Lam, “Wait, Ting!” Lam seemed to be at ease.

The prosecution alleged that the defendants either scolded the men in white shirts, used obscene hand gestures, threw objects or shot water jets at them with a hose.

The defendants pleaded not guilty to the riot charge.

During the trial, Lam said he chose to go to Yuen Long because he hoped his position as an MP at the time could pressure the police to act quickly. He said he could not leave the place while fellow residents were in danger. Some defendants who targeted the white-shirted men with a hose claimed they were only trying to stop the attackers from advancing.

Chan, the judge, rejected arguments by some defendants that they acted in self-defense.

The 2019 protests were sparked by a proposed extradition bill that would have allowed Hong Kong criminal suspects to be sent to the mainland for trial. The government withdrew the bill, but protesters expanded their demands to include direct elections for city leaders and police accountability.

The social movement has been the biggest challenge to Hong Kong’s government since the former British colony returned to Chinese rule in 1997. In response, Beijing imposed a national security law in 2020, leading to the arrest of many activists. Others were silenced or went into exile.

In November, Lam was sentenced to six years and nine months in prison in the city’s biggest national security case.

More than 10,000 people were arrested in connection with the protests for various offenses such as rioting and participating in an unauthorized assembly. About 10 men in white shirts have been convicted in other cases related to mob violence since July 2019, local media reported.