By Jessie Pang
HONG KONG(Reuters) – A Hong Kong court sentenced a prominent social worker on Wednesday to 3 years and 9 months imprisonment for rioting during the city’s 2019 pro-democracy protests, following a retrial.
Jackie Chen was convicted by Deputy District Judge May Chung in March. She had pleaded not guilty and declined to testify during her retrial, which was ordered after she was found innocent of the charges in 2020.
Chung said in her judgment that as Hong Kong is a society with rule of law, the sentencing imposed by the court must have a deterrent effect.
Chen was initially cleared of rioting in the Wan Chai and Causeway Bay districts on August 31, 2019, after District Court Judge Sham Siu-man ruled that the prosecutors had failed to establish a prima facie case against her.
Three other defendants Lai Pui Ki, Chung Ka Nang, Jason Gung were sentenced to 2 years and 5 months after pleading guilty at retrial. They were also initially acquitted by Judge Sham.
Months of sometimes violent pro-democracy protests rocked the global financial hub in 2019 and sparked a Beijing-imposed security crackdown.
Chen, a member of the Battlefield Social Worker group during the 2019 protests, was frequently seen by witnesses with a loudhailer, liaising between protesters and police officers, monitoring police action and offering emotional support to people.
Judge Chung noted Chen’s use of a loud hailer, saying she encouraged the riot through shouting. Chung also said she had taken into account the fact that Chen was under mental stress from the retrial, would have her social worker’s licence revoked and that she had been a social worker for years.
Rioting is capped at a maximum of seven-year sentence at the District Court.
Seperately, Chow Kim-ho, a former member of the pro-democracy group League of Social Democrats, was jailed on Tuesday for one year for posting seditious comments on three social media platforms under the city’s homegrown national security law. He had pleaded guilty.
(Reporting by Jessie Pang; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan)
