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.
An Emirates flight from Dubai arrived at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport yesterday afternoon, the first service of the airline since the US and Israel launched strikes against Iran on Saturday. Flight EK366 took off from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) at 3:51am yesterday and landed at 4:02pm before taxiing to the airport’s D6 gate at Terminal 2 at 4:08pm, data from the airport and FlightAware, a global flight tracking site, showed. Of the 501 passengers on the flight, 275 were Taiwanese, including 96 group tour travelers, the data showed. Tourism Administration Deputy Director-General Huang He-ting (黃荷婷) greeted Taiwanese passengers at the airport and
POSSIBILITIES EMERGE: With Taiwan’s victory and Japan’s narrow win over Australia, Taiwan now have a chance to advance if South Korea also beat the Aussies Taiwan has high hopes that the national baseball team would advance to the World Baseball Classic (WBC) quarter-finals after clinching a crucial 5-4 victory over South Korea in a nail-biting extra-inning game at the Tokyo Dome yesterday. Boosted by three home runs — two solo shots by Yu Chang (張育成) and Cheng Tsung-che (鄭宗哲) and a two-run homer by Stuart Fairchild — the triumph gave Taiwan a much-needed second victory in the five-team Pool C, where only the top two finishers would advance to the knockout stage in Miami, Florida. Entering extra innings with the game tied at four apiece, Taiwan scored
MISSION OF PEACE: The foreign minister urged Beijing to respect Taiwan’s existence as an independent nation, and work together to ensure peace and stability in the region Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) yesterday rejected Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi’s (王毅) comments about Taiwan, criticizing China as a “troublemaker” in the international community and a disruptor of cross-strait peace. Speaking at a news conference on the sidelines of the Chinese National People’s Congress, Wang said that Taiwan has always been a territory of China and that it would be impossible for it to become its own country. The “return” of Taiwan to China was the natural outcome of the Chinese people’s resistance against Japan in World War II, and that any pursuit of independence was “doomed
One person was killed and another seven injured today when a tourist shuttle bus plunged 30m to 40m down a ravine in Nantou County, the Tourism Administration said. The bus is suspected to have suddenly accelerated out of control near the flower center of the Sun-Link-Sea Forest Recreation Area, a popular attraction during cherry blossom season. Of the eight onboard, a 66-year-old man was killed, four were seriously injured and three sustained minor injuries, including the driver. The Nantou County Police Department said it received a report of the incident at 12:15pm and dispatched seven teams to assist. All surviving passengers have been transferred
RSS