判刑理由書撮要(由AI生成)
以下撮要以AI生成及／或翻譯，內容以原來的判刑理由書為準。
The judgment stated that on 22 December 2019 a peaceful assembly at Edinburgh Place in Central suddenly escalated into a riot, with hundreds of people gathering at the scene. During this time, some removed the national flag, surrounded and abused police officers, and attacked them with miscellaneous objects and folding chairs. In the chaos, the third defendant kicked an officer from behind and then fled, while the first defendant pulled him, assisting his escape. The two defendants were later arrested and admitted to assaulting police and to aiding respectively, but the charge of rioting was upheld after trial.
Under section 19 of the Public Order Ordinance for the offence of rioting, the sentencing principles were applied together with the twelve sentencing considerations listed by the Court of Appeal: the incident was spontaneous and unplanned, involved around several dozen participants, lasted about 20 minutes, involved minor use of weapons, resulted in slight bodily injury, and the two defendants were not principal actors. Hence the starting point was set at 43 months’ imprisonment.
Considering that the third defendant’s assault on police and the first defendant’s assistance in escape were aggravating factors, and in the absence of reductions for guilty pleas, the rioting sentence was increased by two months to 45 months. At the same time, for the first defendant’s offence of assisting an offender and the third defendant’s offence of assaulting police, a starting point of 12 weeks was adopted for each, and after a one-quarter reduction, each received 9 weeks’ imprisonment.
The court considered that it was necessary to balance punishment with deterrence of collective violence in public places, in order to uphold the rule of law and public order; although the two defendants were not in leading roles, their actions intensified the violent confrontation, and thus lenient sentences would be inappropriate.
Both defendants were each sentenced to a total of 3 years and 9 months’ imprisonment (45 months) for the rioting and related offences, with their other sentences to run concurrently with the rioting sentence. They were taken into custody immediately to begin serving their terms. (Translated from Chinese to English by AI)
查看完整判刑理由書