Former Hong Kong law student gets nearly 3 years after riot acquittal overturned

A former law student has been jailed for nearly three years for taking part in a riot during the 2019 anti-government protests in Hong Kong, after a judge overturned her acquittal and found her guilty based on “overwhelming” circumstantial evidence.

Alice Tong Ka-yan, 27, was sentenced at the District Court on Wednesday to two years and 10 months’ imprisonment for rioting. Her lawyers had said in mitigation that she had acted under peer influence and the prevailing social atmosphere.

Judge Edmond Lee Chun-man described the sentence as the most lenient available for a defendant who had pleaded not guilty to taking part in a riot involving serious violence during the unrest.

Lee agreed to reduce Tong’s sentence from a starting point of four years in light of her good background, the stress she had endured during the seven-year proceedings, her decision to return from overseas to face the consequences, and the increased difficulty for her to become a lawyer following her conviction last month.

The court heard Tong had been studying law at Lancaster University in the United Kingdom when she briefly returned to Hong Kong during the summer break and took part in a protest in Wan Chai on the night of August 31, 2019.

She was cleared of rioting in August 2021 on the grounds that prosecutors failed to prove she had either committed a violent act or abetted violence during a 30-minute stand-off between protesters and police on Hennessy Road.