[Explanation] On June 10, a group of demonstrators in Hong Kong illegally broke into the Legislative Council during the storming of the law and tried to destroy it in the Eastern Magistrates' Court of Hong Kong. Sun Xiaolan, the former president of the Hong Kong University Student Union who participated in the case at the time, 12 people including Liu Yingkuang, the spokesman of the "Private Assembly Team", and artist Wang Zongyao, were charged with the crime of "entering or staying in the conference hall". Charged with the crime of "riot", the judge decided to adjourn the case until August 3 to retry the trial, pending the preparation of the documents to be referred to the District Court, during which 12 people can be detained or released on bail under the original conditions.
[Explanation] On the same day, the 12 defendants were divided into five cases by the court and the prosecution revealed that the case might be merged in the future. The 12 accused were accused of participating in a riot with other unknown persons in the Legislative Council Complex on July 1, 2019, and entering the scope of the Legislative Council Chamber, failing to observe order or instructions issued by Legislative Council staff to maintain order. On the day of the incident, more than a hundred demonstrators smashed the glass doors of the Legislative Council and entered the conference hall for destruction. Among them, the so-called "occupation Mong Kok painter" Pan Haochao threw eggs and water bottles outside the Hong Kong SAR government headquarters building. In addition to the crime of riot, he was also charged with participating in illegal assembly and illegal destruction of government property.
[Commentary] The prosecution also accused Liang Jiping, the former editor-in-chief of Xueyuan, who read the statement on behalf of the author in the Legislative Council, for a crime of "entering or staying in the conference hall", but Liang Jiping had fled to the United States and did not participate During the court hearing, the prosecution applied for a reissue of the subpoena, which was also postponed until August 3.
The prosecution in the court stated that the total maintenance cost in the incident exceeded HK$36.28 million. The police locked some people through fingerprints on the handrails of the conference hall, the torn Basic Law and other objects and several public videos.
[Commentary] It is understood that the prosecution’s original crime of "entering or staying in the conference hall" has a maximum sentence of 3 months in prison in Hong Kong. The crime of "riot" is heavier, and the maximum sentence is 10 years in prison.
Reporter Zheng Haoxi from Hong Kong
Editor in charge: [Liu Xian]