Hong Kong mastermind of 2019 bomb plot targeting police jailed for nearly 24 years

Court sentences Ng Chi-hung to 23 years and 10 months behind bars, while ‘Dragon Slaying Brigade’ leader Wong Chun-keung gets 13½ years

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Published: 4:06pm, 14 Nov 2024Updated: 5:55pm, 15 Nov 2024

The mastermind of a bomb plot targeting Hong Kong police has been jailed for nearly 24 years, while the leader of the “Dragon Slaying Brigade”, the team behind the thwarted 2019 plan, has been handed a prison sentence of 13½ years.

At the High Court on Thursday, Madam Justice Judianna Wai-ling Barnes sentenced seven defendants over their roles in the plot to plant two bombs in Wan Chai on December 8, 2019, at the height of the months-long anti-government protests.

The high-profile case involved 14 defendants, with 10 of them being charged under the United Nations (Anti-Terrorism Measures) Ordinance, used for the first time since its enactment in 2002.

Six of the seven sentenced on Thursday had pleaded guilty to the charges, while six others who denied them were earlier acquitted by a jury – a seventh member of that group who pleaded not guilty was jailed.

A government spokesman said the Department of Justice would study the reasons for the sentencing to consider whether to seek a review.

“The facts admitted by the defendants indicate that the case involved plans of extreme terrorist violence and gruesome attacks. The circumstances of the case were very serious, in which real guns and explosives were involved,” the spokesman said.

“Had it not been for the crackdown on the gang by police in time, there would have been heavy casualties.”