A former Hong Kong opposition lawmaker and six other men have been convicted of rioting at a railway station amid the 2019 protests, with the judge criticising the former for taking part in unlawful activities to gain political fame.
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District Judge Stanley Chan Kwong-chi said former lawmaker and district councillor Lam Cheuk-ting, 47, had taken part in an unlawful assembly at Yuen Long MTR station on the evening of July 21, 2019.
The incident quickly escalated when Lam and other participants provoked another group of white-clad rioters at the scene, Chan said.
Video evidence shows the former lawmaker and dozens of other residents taking part in the clash with about 100 white-clad men holding rattan and wooden sticks, who stood outside the turnstile gates on the upper floor of the station platform.
Lam said his only intention that night had been to manage the conflict and protect the public in his capacity as a legislator, heading to the station after he was notified of the violence happening in the area.
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He earlier took to the witness box and said he had asked his assistant to live stream the incident to help collect evidence against the men in white, saying he suspected they were triad members.
But Chan dismissed the lawmaker’s defence and said Lam had done the opposite of what he claimed, acting as an instigator rather than a mediator.