Prosecutors accuse Hong Kong ex-opposition lawmaker of inciting riot against ‘white shirts’

Prosecutors have accused a former Hong Kong opposition lawmaker of inciting a riot to attack a group of white-shirted men wielding rods at a railway station during the 2019 social unrest, saying “it was fine” for the men to repel their attackers as they were “defending their homeland”.

Senior public prosecutor Jasmine Ching Wai-ming told the District Court on Thursday Lam Cheuk-ting, 46, had thrice posted on social media on the evening of July 21, 2019, hinting at the possibility of that a group of alleged triad members dressed in white shirts might storm Yuen Long MTR station and attack anyone who dressed in black – the colour favoured by protesters.

Ching accused Lam of stirring up hatred towards the white-shirted men by framing the group as “gangsters” and escalating the situation to cause clashes between the group and civilians at the station hall near the turnstiles.

“It was fine for the men to defend their homeland as that was their original intention. If not for Lam’s instigation, the situation would not have escalated into a riot,” Ching said in her closing submission.