5 men allegedly behind plot against Hong Kong police planned similar attack earlier, court told

Seven people have been charged under the United Nations (Anti-Terrorism Measures) Ordinance for their alleged connection to a plot to plant two bombs in Wan Chai on December 8, 2019.

Ng and two members of his team, David Su and Eddie Pang Kwan-ho, pleaded guilty to the charges, with Su and Pang also turning prosecution witnesses. The remaining two – Lai Chun-pong and Justin Hui Cham-wing – pleaded not guilty.

Su earlier admitted to the court that he was assigned by Ng to be a sniper and had been positioned to kill police from a building.

“[But] Ng’s team had already conspired to attack police before November 18,” Chow contended, saying their plans could be traced back to as early as July that year.

What happened on November 18, Chow explained, was that “Wong’s brigade partnered with Ng’s team and formed an agreement. That agreement eventually evolved into the plot for December 8”.

Chow told the jury that conspiracy, by legal definition, could be understood as conspirators joining a plot at any point after an agreement was made, even if the individual members did not know each other and played different roles in the plan.

Pang earlier testified in court that he had broken into two universities’ laboratories with Hui and Lai on November 14, 2019 to find chemicals for bomb-making. He said Lai was in charge of coordinating with other individuals responsible for making separate components for the explosive devices.

Chow showed the jury messages from the Telegram group chat used by Ng’s team. The messages showed Lai mentioning a person going by the pseudonym “bomb man”, and asking the group where certain bottles of chemicals were stored.

The prosecution believed Ng had successfully assembled the explosives and accused the group of holding a test in a suburb on November 17.

Again pointing to messages in the group chat, the prosecutor said Lai had gone ahead to explore a path that was remote and secluded enough to test the explosives, as well as guns which Ng had imported into Hong Kong.

Lai then attended the firearms test along with Hui, Ng, Pang and brigade members Christian Lee Ka-tin and Cheung Ming-yu, Chow said.

The prosecution will resume its submission on Monday.