Ten Jailed Over 2019 Riot Near PolyU

Ten people were jailed for between 45 and 58 months on Tuesday for rioting near Polytechnic University in 2019.

All but one of the defendants aged between 19 and 25 had denied the charge.

District Court Judge Anthony Kwok said there was no direct evidence to show the 10 had engaged in destruction or violent behaviour, but they had been among up to 2,000 protesters at the scene and still had to bear criminal responsibility for the riot.

Police say 91 of the 213 suspects arrested over the incident in question at the junction of Nathan Road and Waterloo Road on November 18, 2019, have been convicted of rioting so far.

Separately, the Court of Final Appeal (CFA) has agreed to hear a legal challenge from a former PolyU student seeking to reduce the jail term he was given in April 2022 for inciting secession.

Lui Sai-yu was denied the customary one-third sentence reduction for pleading guilty because the national security law states that those convicted of a serious secession offence shall be jailed for between five and 10 years.

The trial judge had adopted a starting point of five years and six months and took six months off for the guilty plea. A full one-third reduction would have taken another 16 months off the sentence.

The CFA granted the appeal to consider whether the five-year minimum punishment set out in Article 21 of the national security law was correctly interpreted, and whether a list of reasons to reduce a sentence set out in Article 33 of the law is exhaustive.

Lui had been the administrator of a Telegram channel which posted messages deemed to incite hatred against China, Hong Kong, the central government and the police.

His appeal hearing is scheduled for August 9.