A Hong Kong court on Thursday sentenced three students to prison terms, ranging from two and a half to six years, for their involvement in a planned bombing of government buildings. This judgment closes a series of trials targeting members of the little-known “Returning Valient” group, mainly students, which advocates resistance to China.
The three young men, aged between 20 and 23, were accused of wanting to make bombs intended for public sites, including courts, in the wake of pro-democracy demonstrations denouncing interference from Beijing. They were arrested in June 2021, before they could design the explosives.
Prison sentences of two and a half to six years
Ho Yu-wang, aged 17 at the time of his arrest, was sentenced to six years behind bars. Prosecutors considered him the leader of the movement, “primarily responsible for making the explosives.” Kwok Man-hei, 21, and Cheung Ho-yeung, 23, both pleaded guilty to the charge of “conspiring to cause explosions.” They were sentenced to prison terms of two and a half years and six years, respectively.
According to prosecutors, Cheung gave Ho 40,000 Hong Kong dollars (around 5,000 euros) to buy equipment and chemicals. “The hostile social climate in 2019 and 2020 was such that it could transform people with good character into extremists,” said Judge Alex Lee, one of the judges chosen by the government on cases related to national security. “Whatever the defendants’ goal, their plan was evil, without a doubt,” he continued.
Some eleven young people, including minors, linked to Returning Valient have been convicted in two previous cases falling under the security law, seen by its critics as a tool of repression aimed at reducing Hong Kong’s autonomy and extent of public freedoms. The sentencing of “children” led the United Nations to “become alarmed” last year.