A Hong Kong man has been sentenced to two years and nine months in jail for rioting in a case relating to the Yuen Long attack in 2019, marking the first sentence for someone not involved in the attack on train passengers and protesters that night.
Jacky Ho, a 43-year-old accountant, was found guilty of a rioting offence last Friday. The case marked the first time that someone not part of the white-shirt group involved in the initial attacks was convicted of rioting.
On July 21, 2019, over 100 rod-wielding men stormed Yuen Long MTR station leaving 45 people injured – including journalists, protesters, commuters and pro-democracy lawmaker Lam Cheuk-ting. Police were criticised for responding slowly to the incident, with some officers seen leaving the scene or interacting with the white-clad men. The official account of the incident evolved over a year, with the authorities eventually claiming it was a “gang fight.”
During the trial, Ho told the District Court that he went to the Yuen Long MTR station at midnight on July 22, 2019 “out of curiosity” after seeing livestreamed videos of people wearing white attacking passengers. When he arrived, he turned to violence out of self-defence, he said.
But judge Lee said a group of “black-clad” people, which video footage showed Ho among, was also taking part in the riot around midnight in the station and in Ying Lung Wai, an area in Yuen Long where some “white-clad” men had retreated to after the attack.
During the protests and unrest that rocked Hong Kong in 2019, black clothing became associated with the protesters. According to the video footage, Ho was wearing a deep grey shirt.
“The white-clad were acting to ‘defend their villages,’ whilst the black-clad were seeking ‘revenge’ for those attacked earlier,” Lee said in Cantonese. “Both sides were clearly antagonistic and were returning violence with violence.”
The judge said the black-clad people should not have taken part in an illegal assembly, despite the earlier attack.
“[They] opted for an eye for an eye, and by doing so they had lost their moral high ground,” Lee added.
Ho has been in custody since being found guilty.
‘Resorted to violence’
On Wednesday morning, judge Lee said before sentencing that more responsibility lay with the “white-clad” group than the “non-white clad” during the mob attack, adding that the “white-clad” group showed a higher degree of violence and that their involvement was premeditated, Ming Pao reported.
Lee said while both sides “resorted to violence”, the court shall review the act of the defendants rationally.
“Some might say that [as] a ‘white-clad’ man was sentenced to six years, then a ‘non-white clad’ person should be sentenced to six to seven years. But we should encourage rational thinking and contextualise the case to handle sentencing, ” Lee said in Cantonese.
By July 2023, eight among the “white-clad” group had been convicted of rioting over their involvement in the Yuen Long mob attack. The eight men were handed jail sentences between three years and six months to seven years in jail.
The attacks were seen as a turning point in the 2019 protests and unrest, with police accused of delaying their response and siding with the “white-clad” group.
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