Former pupil leaders jailed over their reward of a knife assault on police officer

HONG KONG — 4 former pupil leaders from the College of Hong Kong have been sentenced to 2 years in jail on Monday for inciting folks to wound others via their reward of a person who stabbed a police officer earlier than killing himself in 2021.

Kinson Cheung, Charles Kwok, Chris Todorovski and Anthony Yung are being held accountable for their roles in passing a movement within the college students union council. The movement expressed “deep unhappiness” and appreciated the “sacrifice” of the person who took his personal life.

The decision got here towards the backdrop of widespread public anger towards the police, who have been condemned as being heavy-handed in quelling the 2019 pro-democracy protests.

Handing down the sentences, Choose Adriana Noelle Tse Ching stated the phrases they used have been more likely to incite hatred towards the police. The cost the 4 have been dealing with was a severe offense and a lenient sentence would ship “the improper message” to society, she stated.

Leung Kin-fai stabbed a police officer with a knife earlier than turning the weapon on himself on July 1, 2021, the anniversary of the previous British colony’s handover to Chinese language rule in 1997. Leung was described by town’s authorities as a “lone wolf” home terrorist who was politically radicalized.

The passing of the movement drew criticism from the college and Hong Kong’s safety bureau, prompting Kwok and his friends to apologize and retract the decision. Some pupil leaders additionally stepped down from their posts.

However their apology didn’t finish the political storm, and police arrested the 4 in August 2021.

They have been initially charged with advocating terrorism underneath a nationwide safety regulation imposed by Beijing following the 2019 protests. However that cost was dropped after they pleaded responsible to an alternate cost of incitement to wound with intent final month.

The safety regulation has prosecuted or silenced many main activists underneath a crackdown on dissent. However Beijing and the Hong Kong authorities says the regulation helped carry again stability to town.