Published: 2:18pm, 20 Mar 2025Updated: 2:32pm, 20 Mar 2025
A Hong Kong protester has been jailed for nearly four years for his role in the 2019 anti-government unrest after he was rearrested upon his return from Japan.
Advertisement
The District Court on Thursday sentenced Chan Wai-yiu to three years and nine months behind bars for taking part in a riot in Wan Chai on August 31, 2019.
The 27-year-old accounting firm employee was among a group of black-clad protesters who confronted police on a section of Hennessy Road, located between Fleming Road and Tin Lok Lane, that night.
According to a prosecution case summary, protesters had set fire to a makeshift barricade, defaced a signboard advertising pro-Beijing newspaper Ta Kung Pao, hurled petrol bombs and pointed laser beams at police.
Riot officers attempted to disperse the crowd by firing rounds of tear gas, sponge grenades and blue dye from water cannons.
Advertisement
Chan was subdued at 8.21pm shortly after police began making arrests.
A police tactical unit officer struck Chan in the legs three times with a metal baton after the protester tried to resist arrest, according to prosecutors.