Hong Kong court jails ex-student leaders for inciting violence against police

A Hong Kong court on Monday sentenced four former members of the student union of the University of Hong Kong to 2 years in jail for inciting others to wound police officers after they issued a statement supporting a man who stabbed a policeman.
District Court Judge Adriana Noelle Tse Ching said the students had committed a very serious offense by inciting hatred against the police. She added, “A lenient sentencing would pass a wrong message to the society.”
The students included Charles Kwok, 22, a former student union president. Kwok and the other student union council members had issued a statement, which they later withdrew, in which they mourned 50-year-old Leung Kin-fai, who stabbed a policeman and then killed himself on July 1, 2021.
The students were initially arrested and charged with advocating terrorism under Hong Kong’s national security law in August 2021. They earlier pleaded not guilty to the terrorism charge but admitted to the charge of incitement to wound with intent. The judge then dropped the terrorism charge.