Then Hong Kong schoolboy who planned ‘evil’ terror bombing in city in wake of 2019 social unrest jailed for 6 years
He said the social turmoil of the time had galvanised them into almost “declaring war on society, the government and the court”.
“The hostile social atmosphere in 2019 and 2020 was such that it could easily cloud people’s moral judgment,” Lee, hand-picked by the city leader to preside over national security cases, said.
“The plan was without any doubt an evil one. The defendants by then can be said to have become the kind of person who intended to achieve ends regardless of means.”
Prosecutors on Thursday dropped similar national security charges against Kwok’s boyfriend, 26-year-old driver Cedric Chan Hoi-leung, after it was found Cheung had misled police into thinking the former’s role was greater than it actually was.
Chan is believed to be the first person to be released unconditionally after being charged with a national security offence.
Ho became the second Hongkonger to be jailed for a terrorism offence under the Beijing-imposed 2020 national security law, which also criminalises acts of secession, subversion and collusion with foreign forces.
The three sentenced on Thurday were charged with conspiracy to commit a terrorist act under the national security law, with an alternative colonial-era charge of conspiracy to cause explosions with intent to endanger life and property.
Ho admitted the national security charge and the other two pleaded guilty to the alternative offence.
The court heard the then teenager played truant from school in 2019 to devote himself to political causes.
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Cheung gave Ho HK$40,000 (US$5,095) and the necessary knowledge to make triacetone triperoxide (TATP), a high explosive.
The group came up with a plan to get Chan Cheuk-him to plant a home-made bomb at Kwun Tong Court and trigger it by phone in July 2021.
Had that failed, Law, who was given HK$500 in advance, would be instructed to activate the device, but without being aware he was doing so.
Ho and Chan Cheuk-him were to flee the city and try to seek asylum in Taiwan or Britain.
The court heard Ho planned to admit responsibility for the attacks and orchestrate future terrorism in the city from abroad.
But the group failed to produce a viable explosive device because they were unable to source the required ingredients, the court was told.
Ho and five others were arrested on July 5 2021. Law was caught a few days later.
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All but Cedric Chan pleaded guilty to the charges against them.
Lee set a starting point of 10 years imprisonment for Ho, but warned that it was already a lenient one and could have been higher had it not been for his youth and the lack of casualties and property loss.
He knocked off four years in recognition of his guilty plea and help given to the prosecution to secure Cheung’s conviction.
Lee used similar grounds as he cut Kwok’s sentence from a starting point of 5½ years in jail to 2½ years.
The judge sentenced Cheung to six years behind bars after he cut two years from a starting point of eight years in recognition of his guilty plea.
A jail sentence of three to 10 years is given for a terrorism offence involving no casualties or damage to property under the national security law.
Offences are otherwise punishable by a fixed term of no less than 10 years behind bars.
Attempts to cause explosions with intent to endanger life and property are punishable by up to 20 years imprisonment under the Crimes Ordinance.