Four former student leaders from the University of Hong Kong were sentenced to 2 years in jail for inciting other folks to wound others via their praise of a guy who stabbed a police officer ahead of killing himself in 2021
ByKANIS LEUNG Associated Press
October 30, 2023, 4:32 AM
HONG KONG — Four former student leaders from the University of Hong Kong had been sentenced to 2 years in jail on Monday for inciting other folks to wound others via their praise of a guy who stabbed a police officer ahead of killing himself in 2021.
Kinson Cheung, Charles Kwok, Chris Todorovski and Anthony Yung are being held liable for their roles in passing a movement within the scholars union council. The movement expressed “deep sadness” and liked the “sacrifice” of the person who took his personal existence.
The solution got here towards the backdrop of in style public anger towards the police, who had been condemned as being heavy-handed in quelling the 2019 pro-democracy protests.
Handing down the sentences, Judge Adriana Noelle Tse Ching stated the phrases they used had been prone to incite hatred towards the police. The fee the 4 had been going through used to be a critical offense and a lenient sentence would ship “the wrong message” to society, she said.
Leung Kin-fai stabbed a police officer with a knife before turning the weapon on himself on July 1, 2021, the anniversary of the former British colony’s handover to Chinese rule in 1997. Leung was described by the city’s authorities as a “lone wolf” domestic terrorist who was politically radicalized.
The passing of the motion drew criticism from the university and Hong Kong’s security bureau, prompting Kwok and his peers to apologize and retract the resolution. Some student leaders also stepped down from their posts.
But their apology did not end the political storm, and police arrested the four in August 2021.
They were originally charged with advocating terrorism under a national security law imposed by Beijing following the 2019 protests. But that charge was dropped after they pleaded guilty to an alternative charge of incitement to wound with intent last month.
The safety regulation has prosecuted or silenced many main activists below a crackdown on dissent. But Beijing and the Hong Kong executive says the regulation helped convey again steadiness to the town.
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