By Jessie Pang and James Pomfret
HONG KONG (Reuters) -A Hong Kong court on Thursday sentenced former lawmaker Lam Cheuk-ting and six other men to jail terms of up to around three years for rioting after being attacked by a mob in the summer of 2019 as pro-democracy protests raged.
On the night of July 21, 2019, more than 100 white-shirted men stormed the Yuen Long train station, attacking passers-by and journalists with clubs and sticks. Around a dozen attackers would eventually be jailed for rioting and conspiring to wound with intent.
But in a twist that stoked public outrage, Lam and six others who had tried to defend the public that night, were also arrested and charged with rioting.
Lam, 47, ended up being hospitalised with head and arm injuries that required about 18 stitches.
In handing down a 37-month sentence for Lam, District Court judge Stanley Chan noted he had not engaged in violent acts, but his presence as a prominent democrat and his live streaming of the attack had inflamed the situation and created a “magnet effect” drawing more people to the scene.
Lam, who is already serving a nearly seven-year jail term for a separate subversion charge in a case where he and 46 other democratic campaigners were found guilty of violating a China-imposed national security law, will serve 34 months of his rioting sentence after that term finishes.
Six other defendants, Yu Ka Ho, Jason Chan, Yip Kam Sing, Kwong Ho Lam, Wan Chung Ming and Marco Yeung, were sentenced to between 25-31 months. Many of these men, who had no previous criminal record and had tried forming a defensive line against the attackers, sought mitigation on the grounds of self defence.
But Chan said they had engaged in “riotous behaviour” including throwing water bottles and spraying water from fire hoses that had escalated tensions.
“It is apparent that, apart from the riot staged by the white-clad gang … As the defendants took part in the unlawful assembly in the paid area (of the train station) at the material time and when there was a breach of peace, the defendants became the rioters,” Chan wrote in a summary of the judgement.
Lam, dressed in a black suit, listened with his arms folded, while some relatives and supporters sobbed and hugged one another in the public stands.
“I fully understand that what I thought was ‘right’ in the past has become ‘wrong’ today. It has even become a crime, and has imprisoned me till now, with no hope of freedom,” Lam wrote earlier in his mitigation letter.
In 2020, China imposed a sweeping national security law for Hong Kong after mass protests that drew millions onto the streets. Since then, authorities have arrested scores of activists, shut down liberal civil society groups and media outlets, and overhauled elections to disenfranchise and marginalise the opposition.
Countries including the United States have criticised the crackdown, but Beijing says all are treated equally under the security law and it has brought stability.
(Reporting by James Pomfret and Jessie Pang; Editing by Michael Perry and Christian Schmollinger)
