A Hong Kong man who served a prison term in China after being caught by mainland coastguards while trying to flee the city is expected to plead guilty to a 2019 protest charge.
Tang Kai-yin, 34, appeared at District Court on Thursday. The prosecution said he intended to plead guilty to possessing items with intent to destroy or damage property, according to local media reports.
The offence is an alternative charge to conspiracy to commit arson, with which Tang was initially charged. The arson charge will be left on court file, meaning that the prosecution can only proceed with it with permission from a judge.
Tang is accused of possessing glass, ethanol and other suspected raw materials for making petrol bombs in a building on Lockhart Road in Wan Chai on September 30, 2019. At the time, the city was engulfed in protests and unrest against a controversial extradition bill.
The case was adjourned to January 22 for him to formally submit his plea. Separately, his case of perverting the course of justice – linked to the escape bid – was adjourned to January 24.
Tang, who did not apply for bail, will remain in custody.
Failed escape attempt
Tang was among the 12 Hongkongers stopped by mainland Chinese authorities in August 2020 during a failed attempt to flee to Taiwan via speedboat. They had all been arrested over offences related to the protests in 2019 and were on bail.
The incident gained international attention, with the then-US secretary of state Mike Pompeo and then-UK foreign secretary Dominic Raab expressing concerns over the fate of the fugitives under a legal system often criticised as opaque.
Two of the 12 were minors and were returned to Hong Kong in December 2020. Of the remaining 10, eight were charged with crossing the border illegally and sentenced to seven months in prison in mainland China following closed-door hearings. They were handed over to Hong Kong authorities in March last year after completing their jail terms in a Guangdong prison.
In mainland China, Tang was given a three-year jail sentence after being convicted of organising an illegal border crossing, the heaviest sentence of the group. Quinn Moon, also convicted on the same offence, served two years in prison.
Tang was the last of the 12 to return to Hong Kong, arriving back in the city in August after serving his sentence. He has been in custody since then.
Protests erupted in June 2019 over a later-axed extradition bill. They escalated into sometimes violent displays of dissent against police behaviour, amid calls for democracy and anger over Beijing’s encroachment. Demonstrators demanded an independent probe into police conduct, amnesty for those arrested and a halt to the characterisation of protests as “riots.”
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