On September 29, 2019, protesters illegally gathered outside the Mong Kok police station and police arrested many people. Four men and two women were subsequently charged with illegal assembly, possession of an offensive weapon in a public place and assaulting a police officer. Three male defendants pleaded guilty one after another. Two were sentenced to 4-5 months in prison earlier. Today (18), another young man was sentenced to a re-education center through a job center at West Kowloon Magistrates’ Court. Magistrate Heung Shuk-han criticized the accused for putting the cardboard in the fire and attacking the police officer, breaking her fingers.
The defendant convicted today is Chen Huiyan, a 20-year-old construction worker who was only 17 at the time of the crime. He was charged with 1 count of illegal assembly and 2 count of assaulting a police officer, claiming that on 29 September 2019 he participated in an illegal assembly with other unknown persons in the vicinity of Mong Kok Police Station, Prince Edward Road. West, Mong Kok; Police officers 7608 and 15120 were attacked in Sai Yeung Choi South Street in Mong Kok near the Bute Street intersection. According to the case, around 10 o’clock that night, some demonstrators threw gasoline bombs near the Mong Kok police station, and then some people set fire to Sai Yeung Choi Street. Police arrested the defendant at around 11:30 am During the period, the defendant beat Police Officer 7608 on the head several times, pulled his fingers and tried to push him away, resulting in the fracture and a slight swelling of the left ring finger of 7608, and was given one month’s sick leave by the doctor. Police officer 15120 who joined to help subdue the accused was hit by the accused’s fingers, causing pain in his right ring finger. Police and media photographed the defendant wearing a black suit that night and putting the cardboard into a fire along the way.
The defense claimed that the defendant did not know that the person who subdued him from behind was a police officer because the police officer did not disclose his identity at the time. The magistrate stated that he did not accept this claim, believing that the police had given many warnings at the time, and further stressed that if the accused had believed that the person holding him was a similar one, the accused would not have distorted the his finger. The defense further explained that the defendant was beaten in the head with a truncheon by a police officer that day. Although he wasn’t in a coma, he needed stitches. The injured police officer apologized. Sentenced by the magistrate, the case was at the height of the demonstrations against the amendment, and the accused was obviously well prepared, even committing violence, throwing the newspaper into the fire. To escape the uniform of police officers, the defendant assaulted the officers and fractured a finger in one of them, behaving so badly that a prison sentence was inevitable. However, given the youth of the accused and balancing the elements of deterrence, punishment and rehabilitation, it was decided to sentence the accused to a labor camp.
Case number: WKCC 1825/2022
