A student at the Hong Kong Design Institute has been sentenced to a training centre after pleading guilty to rioting near the Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU) in 2019.
Lee Ka-hei, 20, appeared before judge Stanley Chan at District Court on Friday.
The 20-year-old had initially pleaded not guilty to two counts of rioting and was remanded in custody for six months before being granted bail at the High Court in August last year. Last month, she entered a guilty plea and has been held in custody since.
Chan sentenced Lee to a training centre, where the minimum sentence is six months and the maximum is three years. Training centres provide an alternative to prison for some offenders aged under 21.
Chan called her “an introverted, well-behaved and easily-influenced little girl” who was not able to “distinguish right and wrong,” and had no idea why she was participating in the event.
The university siege, which occurred during the height of the 2019 protests, saw protesters and riot police clash in a tense stand-off that lasted nearly two weeks and made headlines worldwide. Thousands of young protesters, some under 18, barricaded themselves within the university, which was completely surrounded by police.
Lee was arrested as she was trying to escape from the campus.
Her lawyer said that Lee had never intend to harm anyone, but was hoping to “accompany the protesters inside PolyU.” The lawyer also said she had expressed regret over joining the event, and had paid a heavy cost.
Chan told Lee not to “let the radicals push you to the frontline and become the ‘cannon fodder’ of political furore,” adding that the political atmosphere has made the defendant realise how “hideous” politics is.
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