A Hong Kong man has been jailed for four months over the false imprisonment of a plainclothes police officer at Prince Edward Station during the protests in 2019.
Wat Kwan-pang, a sound engineer, appeared at Kowloon City Magistrates’ Court on Wednesday afternoon. He was convicted in January after pleading not guilty last September, more than four years after the incident occurred, InMedia reported.
Handing down the verdict, magistrate Philip Chan said the 27-year-old had dragged the officer to stop him from leaving, and that his level of participation in the incident was “not low,” according to The Witness.
Chan rejected a suggestion from Wat’s lawyer that his client should be sentenced to community service, with Wat ordered to serve four months in jail.
The case relates to an incident on the night of August 31, 2019, when police officers charged onto the platform at Prince Edward MTR Station as people were returning home from protests that day. Photos showed officers deploying pepper spray and using batons to beat passengers inside train carriages, as they defended themselves with umbrellas.
Dozens of people were arrested in relation to the incident on charges including rioting, attacking a police officer and unlawful assembly.
Wat was accused of falsely imprisoning a plainclothes police officer surnamed Cheung on the platform of Prince Edward station. The officer had been capturing people wearing black, often the attire of protesters, on his phone, and was later surrounded and ordered to delete the contents, according to the prosecution.
He was among 16 people charged last May. He and another defendant, Leung Ching-man, were accused of false imprisonment. Leung was found not guilty in January after the judge said he could not rule out the possibility that she was attempting to defuse the situation.
‘A serious offence’
Before Chan handed down the sentence, Wat’s lawyer said during mitigation that the act had not been not pre-meditated and had taken place in public.
“[The defendant] just put his hand on [the officer’s] shoulder and pulled him,” the lawyer said, adding that the officer had not been hurt.
The lawyer also cited a letter from Wat’s employer, who praised him as hardworking and responsible.
Wat also regretted his actions and his chance of reoffending was low, the lawyer added.
But Chan said while delivering the jail term that false imprisonment was a “serious offence.” He said that even though the offence only lasted a couple of minutes, many people on the scene were swearing and hurling insults at the plainclothes police officer.
Wat was also the first person to drag the officer back when he attempted to leave, Chan said.
The Prince Edward station incident marked one of the key moments of the protests and unrest in 2019, which were sparked by a controversial extradition bill that would have allowed the transfer of fugitives to mainland China to stand trial.
Online, rumours spread of protesters dying inside the station as first aiders were barred from entering after MTR staff closed off the entrances. The rail company was accused of colluding with police, prompting protesters to vandalise MTR stations and boycott the trains.
The anti-extradition protests eventually dried up in early 2020 amid the Covid-19 pandemic and Beijing’s imposition of a national security law.
Support HKFP | Policies & Ethics | Error/typo? | Contact Us | Newsletter | Transparency & Annual Report | Apps
Help safeguard press freedom & keep HKFP free for all readers by supporting our team
LATEST FROM HKFP
HKFP has an impartial stance, transparent funding, and balanced coverage guided by an Ethics Code and Corrections Policy.
Support press freedom & help us surpass 1,000 monthly Patrons: 100% independent, governed by an ethics code & not-for-profit.
