Four former Hong Kong university students jailed for glorifying attack on cop

Four former students of the University of Hong Kong were jailed for two years on Monday (Oct 30) for praising a knife attack on a police officer in 2021. According to a report by the news agency AFP, the students — Kinson Cheung, Kwok Wing-ho, Chris Todorovski and Yung Chung-hei — pleaded guilty to the alternative charge of "inciting others to wound police officers" that carries a maximum sentence of life in prison, and district judge Adriana Tse Ching sentenced them to 24 months in jail.

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They were initially charged with inciting terrorism under the national security law that China imposed on Hong Kong following the 2019 pro-democracy protests.

The attack

On July 1, 2021, 50-year-old Leung Kin-fai stabbed and wounded a police officer in a busy shopping district before taking his own life in what authorities called an act of "domestic terrorism". Days later, a student union council at the University of Hong Kong passed a motion to mourn the attacker, and to "appreciate his sacrifice for Hong Kong".

During the meeting of the council, the students expressed respect for Leung's act and criticised the government's characterisation of it as terrorism.

On Monday, district judge Ching said the four students not only openly defied laws and targeted police officers but also used the student union council as a platform to "glorify the incident". "The Defendants were abusing their powers as members of the Executive Committee," the judgement read.

Ching also pointed out the fact that the student union council's meeting got widespread local and international media coverage was also an aggravating factor.

Kwok Wing-ho, who was the union's president, called the attacker a "martyr". Kwok told the court on Monday that the public sympathised with Leung after the police crackdown on the 2019 protests, AFP reported.

"The clashes between police and civilians have brought Hong Kong indelible trauma," Kwok wrote in his mitigation letter to the court.

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