Three men have been convicted of inciting others to kill Hong Kong police officers and their family members while chatting in a WhatsApp group at the height of the 2019 protests and unrest.
Alfee Kwan, a 49-year-old salesperson, Yip Tsz Hin, a 30-year-old personal trainer, and owner of an engineering company Johnny Tsang, 50, appeared in front of District Judge Kathie Cheung at District Court on Friday for verdict.
The trio pleaded not guilty to two charges of incitement to cause grievous bodily harm with intent last September. They represented themselves at court and argued that what what they has said in the WhatsApp group was merely “empty words” and emotion venting, Ming Pao reported.
Cheung, however, did not accept their arguments, instead saying their messages in the WhatsApp group were well-considered plans to harm officers , such as attacking isolated and unarmed off-duty police officers and their family.
The judge added that if the defendants had simply been having fun, they would not have spent around an hour and a half exchanging messages in the WhatsApp group and suggesting different ways to harm police officers.
The three men were remanded in custody pending sentencing after conviction.
Policing WhatsApp groups
According to the prosecutor, the trio were suspected of mentioning using a bomb to hurt police officers and issuing a bounty for killing officers in a WhatsApp group called “HK Audi 5 Club” with over 100 members on October 7, 2019.
A total of 579 messages were sent to the group in a discussion lasting around an hour and a half.
Two members in the group, who were police officers, then captured screenshots of those messages and sent them to colleagues for investigation. The two officers appeared in court as prosecution witnesses last September.
The chat was triggered by a video sent to the group, which showed security guards trying to stop police officers from entering a shopping mall during the 2019 protests and unrest.
Kwan then said in the group, “If the evil cops were not out of control, ordinary people would not be out of control”, “dozens of evil cops should die first,” and “no revolution is peaceful. ”
Yip, meanwhile, sent messages such as “right now no one is killing policemen or their wives and children. If any martyr is willing to, I will definitely donate money to their family.”
Tsang, commented “those evil cops raped and killed others, their death will not make up for all their crimes. ”
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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