A Hong Kong court yesterday sentenced two young men to jail terms over a violent clash during the territory’s political unrest in 2019 that killed an elderly man.
Luo Chang-qing (羅長清), a 70-year-old cleaner, died from a blow to the head during a confrontation near the mainland China border where democracy protesters and government loyalists hurled bricks at each other.
Luo was one of the only fatalities directly linked to Hong Kong’s political turmoil in 2019, and his case remains a source of outrage for Hong Kong government supporters.
Photo:EPA-EFE
Kelvin Lau (劉子龍), 19, and Chan Yin-ting (陳彥廷), 18, were each sentenced to five-and-a-half years in jail for rioting.
The duo faced additional manslaughter and wounding charges, but a jury last month cleared them of responsibility in Luo’s death.
The judge yesterday said that the defendants — who were underage at the time of the clashes — were among a group that instigated the violence that escalated into a “very serious riot.”
“Things devolved into mayhem which led to very tragic consequences,” the judge said.
The skirmish, which took place in the Sheung Shui neighborhood in November 2019, was one among dozens that broke out between ideological opponents at the height of Hong Kong’s massive pro-democracy protests.
The defendants made plans to protest together on the day, which showed some level of premeditation, the judge said.
Earlier media accounts of the clashes placed blame on both sides, but the judge praised the government loyalists as “unsung heroes” who acted selflessly and courageously when they stood up to the protesters.
Separately, Hong Kong censors have banned an award-winning animated film from being shown over a one-second scene depicting the 2014 democracy protests in the territory, local media reported, in the latest sign of free speech curbs in Hong Kong.
Losing Sight of a Longed Place, an eight-minute film about a young gay man’s struggles in Hong Kong, was scheduled to screen tomorrow at a local film show organized by the Ground Up Film Society.
The filmmakers on Wednesday said that the movie was pulled from the line-up after they refused to submit an edited version, without specifying which scene censors asked them to remove.
The film in its entirety was rejected by the Hong Kong Office for Film, Newspaper and Article Administration, they said on Facebook.
The South China Morning Post and other local media reported that the filmmakers were asked to remove a scene showing 2014’s “illegal occupation,” citing a phrase the government uses to describe the “Umbrella movement,” when thousands of peaceful protesters occupied part of the territory’s central business district to demand broader voting rights.
Last year, authorities passed a film censorship law banning content that runs contrary to the interests of the Beijing-imposed National Security Law, with penalties as high as three years in prison for those who screen non-approved content.
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