判刑理由書撮要(由AI生成)
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The judgment states that on the evening of 18 November 2019, during a confrontation with the police on Nathan Road in Yau Ma Tei, six defendants, together with others, participated in a riot and were intercepted and arrested. The first defendant was additionally charged with possessing an offensive weapon (a laser pointer) in a public place. Prior to the incident, the PolyU campus had been occupied, triggering a standoff between police and protesters. Online calls urged demonstrators to head to the Yau Tsim Mong area to ‘besiege Wei to rescue Zhao’, and approximately two thousand people deliberately assembled to form a blockade, repeatedly throwing petrol bombs, bricks and debris at the police, blocking roads, causing serious public disorder and widespread property damage. The six were convicted within the scope of the riot for intending to support, encourage and assist others in disrupting public peace.
According to Section 19 of the Public Order Ordinance, the maximum penalty for a riot is 10 years’ imprisonment. The District Court’s sentencing guidelines refer to the twelve sentencing factors listed in the Court of Appeal case of Leung Tin-kei, including planning, scale, degree of violence, public danger and so on, with a starting point of 63 months’ imprisonment.
The court found that this riot was organised, premeditated and involved large-scale violence. Protesters continuously threw petrol bombs and created fire, resulting in injuries to officers and the public and damage to facilities. Although the six defendants were not leaders or organisers, their presence boosted the momentum sufficiently to constitute participation in the riot. Accordingly, the court reduced each defendant’s sentence based on mitigation, guilty plea and level of involvement: D1 to D4 received a two-month reduction each; D3 and D5 received an additional one-month reduction; and D5 and D6 were granted a 23.8% discount for guilty pleas. On the second count, each was sentenced to an additional five months, to be served consecutively to the first count.
The judge emphasised that Hong Kong is a society governed by the rule of law, and it is essential to safeguard public order and peace. Unjustified and serious acts of violence must be met with sufficiently punitive and deterrent sentences to protect the overall interests of society and prevent similar incidents from recurring. Sentencing must consider the threat posed by the riot as a whole, not merely the actions or backgrounds of individual defendants.
Defendant 1 was sentenced to 5 years and 1 month’ imprisonment for riot, and to a further 5 months for possession of an offensive weapon, of which 2 months are to be served consecutively, resulting in a total of 5 years and 3 months’ imprisonment; Defendants 2 and 4 were each sentenced to 5 years and 1 month; Defendant 3 to 5 years; Defendant 5 to 3 years and 11 months; and Defendant 6 to 4 years. (Translated from Chinese to English by AI)
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