1 week Ago By Hans Tse
The “mastermind” of a thwarted bomb plot intending to target police during protests in Hong Kong in 2019 has been sentenced nearly 24 years behind bars, as the leader of radical group “Dragon Slayers” was jailed for 13-and-a-half years. Ng Chi-hung, 28, and Wong Chun-keung, 26, appeared at Hong Kong’s High Court on Thursday to face sentencing alongside five others over their roles in a bomb plot that aimed to kill police officers during a lawful protest on December 8, 2019. Ng and Wong were the leaders of two radical groups behind the plot – with Wong heading Dragon Slayers.
The plan was never executed as police arrested core members of the groups. The duo were accused of “conspiracy to commit bombing of prescribed objects” – a charge under a United Nations anti-terrorism law invoked for the first time – among other offences. “The December 8 plot aimed to kill police.
It intended to create panic in society and subvert the Hong Kong government,” presiding Judge Judianna Barnes said in Cantonese. “No words can adequately describe the malice of the scheme.” Barnes called Ng the “mastermind and the architect” of the scheme and set 28 years as the starting point for the UN bombing charge, before knocking 20 per cent off the term for his guilty plea.
Ng was also handed a jail term of 14 years and 4 months for “possession of arms or ammunition with intent to endanger life.” The judge ordered Ng to serve most of the two sentences concurrently and fixed his jail term at 23 years and 10 months. It marked the heaviest sentence yet in cases related to the protests and unrest in 2019.
While Wong was not the mastermind and had not handled firearms or ammunitions, Barnes said he was responsible for assembling the Dragon Slayers to execute the plan. Wong, however, pleaded guilty ahead of trial and later testified for the prosecution, Barnes said, which warranted a 50 per cent discount to his sentence. Barnes set 24 years as the starting sentence for Wong’s UN bombing charge and nine years for his second charge of “conspiring to provide or collect property to commit terrorist acts.
” She sentenced Wong to a total of 13 years and six months in jail for the two charges. During the same hearing, five others received jail terms ranging from five years and 10 months to 12 years. Gunman David Su, 23, who intended to fire at police officers from a nearby building after the bomb was set off, was sentenced to 12 years behind bars for three separate charges, including one count of conspiracy to commit murder.
Eddie Pang, 38, a member of Ng’s radical group, was given a 10-year jail term for the UN bombing charge. Choi Hoi-ming, 25, was sentenced to five years and 10 months in jail, and Chan Yuk-lung, 32, was handed a nine-year jail term for offences related to the making and possession of the bombs and the firearms. Lai Chun-pong, 33, was sentenced to 10 years and 10 months behind bars for conspiracy to cause explosion with intent to endanger life or property.
He was convicted by a nine-member jury in August , when six other defendants were acquitted. The sentencing brought the first prosecution under the UN anti-terrorism ordinance to a close, almost five years after the plan to carry out the bomb plot was thwarted. Prosecutors said the defendants had planned to set two bombs off along Hennessy Road in Wan Chai during a lawful rally on December 8, 2019, which marked International Human Rights Day.
Speaking to reporters after the sentencing hearing, Steve Li, chief superintendent of the police’s national security department, said Ng’s sentence was the heaviest among all convictions related to the protests and unrest in 2019. Li did not rule out the possibility of authorities launching appeals against the sentencing in the case. When asked about the jury’s decision to acquit six defendants, Li said in Cantonese: “As law enforcement officers, we should not criticise the problems of the judicial system.
” “But if we are met with similar cases again, there are two laws that we could use, that is Article 24 of the [Beijing-imposed] national security law, and the more recently enacted Safeguarding National Security Ordinance ,” he said. Beijing imposed the national security law in June 2020, and Hong Kong enacted further security legislation, known as Article 23, in March. Both laws have provisions against terrorist activities or “acts sabotaging national security.
” Protests erupted in June 2019 over a since-axed extradition bill . They escalated into sometimes violent displays of dissent against police behaviour, amid calls for democracy and anger over Beijing’s encroachment. Demonstrators demanded an independent probe into police conduct, amnesty for those arrested and a halt to the characterisation of protests as “riots.
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