Three men have been jailed for up to 4½ years for their roles in an arson attack at Kowloon Tong MTR station during the 2019 anti-government protests.
The District Court on Tuesday heard the trio started a fire near turnstiles at Exit G1 of the railway station soon after 2pm on October 12, 2019, when black-clad demonstrators took to the streets to protest against an anti-mask law.
The trio’s arson attack scorched a three-by-one-metre area, causing black smoke to spread across the ceiling of the station. MTR staff reacted quickly to the incident and managed to put out the blaze with a fire extinguisher in under a minute.
The turnstiles were subsequently closed for repairs, costing HK$84,156 (US$10,789).
District Judge Clement Lee Hing-nin said the three defendants had planned the attack at one of the busiest MTR stations and the court needed to impose a deterrent sentence to protect lives and prevent a repeat of the incident.
Delivery worker Tsang Yu-sang, 28, who had placed two bottles of petrol in front of the turnstiles, pleaded guilty before trial and was jailed for 52 months on four charges, including conspiracy to commit arson with intent to endanger life.
His sentence also included three possession charges for five petrol bombs, 11 bottles of petrol, a chemical spray, five crowbars, three hammers and two knives that Tsang was found to be carrying at the time.
Party room owner Wong Hon-wai, 32, was jailed for 50 months on the conspiracy charge after he admitted during trial that he had set the two bottles on fire, while construction worker Wong Kam-faat, 42, was sentenced to 54 months after being found guilty of providing material support.
The three men were also required to each pay more than HK$9,300 in compensation to MTR.
A fourth defendant, 35-year-old technician Cheng Wai-sum, was acquitted of a conspiracy charge after the judge found that it was possible the defendant did not know about the planned arson attack before driving his friend Wong Hon-wai to the MTR station.
Also present at the District Court on Tuesday were a group of eight men and a woman, aged between 20 and 29, who were found guilty of rioting outside Diocesan Girls’ School at Gascoigne Road, Jordan on November 18, 2019.
The group was among hundreds of demonstrators arrested across districts surrounding Polytechnic University as part of plans to break up a police siege of the protester-occupied campus.
They were arrested near the front line and were found equipped with helmets, goggles, gas masks and gloves.
One of them, 25-year-old bank teller Tsang Sin-yee, was still holding a petrol bomb in her right hand whilst she was being pursued by police, the court heard.
District Judge Josiah Lam Wai-kuen dismissed the defendants’ claim of simply passing by and concluded that the group had deliberately equipped themselves to participate in the riot and ignored warnings to disperse from the scene.
Designer Leung Ka-sing, 24, was found guilty for a count of possession of offensive weapons or instruments fit for unlawful purpose, after he was caught with a pair of scissors and a can of lighter fuel at the time of his arrest.
Surveyor Jim Lung-heung, 27, was also convicted of the same charge after he was found with two spanners and a screw cap socket in his possession.
The other defendants included: accounting clerk Nelson Chan Tsz-him, 29; electrical engineer Kong Keng-tong, 27; students Chan Kwok-wai, 20; Chan Ting-kwan, 20; and Wong Sik-chit, 22; and Tang Kam-lok, 24, who is unemployed.
The group of nine will be sentenced on January 15 next year.
Arson is punishable by life in prison, while rioting carries a maximum sentence of 10 years, but is capped at seven years when the case is heard at the District Court.