Death cases rarely occurred during the anti-amendment campaign

During the campaign against the Amendment of the Fugitive Ordinance in 2019, an elderly cleaning man died the following day after being hit in the head by a suspected hard object during a road blocking and brick-throwing operation. Two youths present were acquitted by a jury of manslaughter and wounding with intent, but were found guilty of rioting. The judge decided that a deterrent punishment was warranted and sentenced the men to five and a half years in prison.

On November 13, 2019, a netizen called for a “junior strike” (school boycott, strike and market strike) in Hong Kong. People set up barricades outside the North District City Hall in Sheung Shui, New Territories, with bricks and other objects. Two groups of people with different political views had a dispute over this. A 63-year-old man was injured in the attack and suffered a lacerated iris in his left eye. Two men, Liu Zilong and Chen Yan-ting, aged 17 and 16 at the time, were charged with the murder of Luo Chang-qing and with intent to cause serious bodily harm to man X; And charged with rioting with an unknown person.

The defendant denied the charge, and Judge Du Libing, after the prosecution finished presenting evidence, found that the murder charge was not sufficient evidence, and the charge was amended to manslaughter. In mid-July, the jury unanimously acquitted the two men of manslaughter and by a large margin acquitted them of wounding with intent. And by a large margin found riot guilty. The case is the first in the anti-amendment campaign to be tried by a jury for rioting, which carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison.

Ambassador Tu heard the two petitions after the early sentence today (12), referring to the two defendants did have a 掟 brick, although the evidence shows that the two defendants did not long-term planning and participation in the incident, nor did they deliberately cause damage to public places, but can not therefore reduce the incident caused by the tragedy and harm, and the seriousness of riot crime; However, taking into account their youth and remorse, and accepting the background report that they failed to foresee the likely serious consequences of their actions due to a lack of proper guidance, the sentences were reduced by half a year and they were sentenced to 5.5 years’ imprisonment.

Mr Toh also praised the members of the public who carried the bricks back to the pavement as “unsung heroes”. He said that even though they were frightened by the “men in black” (most of the anti-bill protesters were dressed in black), they continued to carry the bricks bravely and selflessly to restore order to the road. They were selfless and fearless in showing the spirit of Hong Kong. She also thanked the police for the thousands of hours they spent investigating the incident, calling them “Asia’s even world’s finest disciplined force.”