An air-conditioning engineer was yesterday imprisoned for 42 months for incitement to wounding with intent and advising on bomb manufacturing though information disseminated on the Telegram channel during 2019 and 2020.

Hui Chi-kit, 30, had earlier pleaded guilty to the two offenses in District Court.

Deputy District Court judge Winnie Lau Yee-wan, delivering the verdict yesterday, noted that Telegram had more than 22,000 subscribers and more than 2,000 messages. Twenty-two involved inciting others to make weapons and 26 were related to making explosives.

The defense had argued that Hui only forwarded messages, but Lau said Hui actively provided information analysis and advice to others to violate the law.

Lau added that some of the methods of harming others were extremely lethal and could be fatal, and the widespread dissemination on the internet meant a continuous potential threat to public safety.

Lau sentenced Hui to five years in prison for each of the two counts, with a reduced sentence of 45 months after his guilty plea. And considering Hui was a first-time offender, was cooperative after his arrest and actively pursued his studies while on remand his sentence was further reduced to 42 months.

In another case at District Court yesterday a 26-year-old engineer and two others pleaded guilty to rioting, wounding with intent and resisting arrest after the engineer stabbed a police officer with a knife during a protest on Hong Kong Island.

The engineer, Wong Kwan-wa, was arrested on a flight minutes before departure from Hong Kong International Airport on July 1, 2020, hours after the stabbing in Tin Hau. That had been at around 12.30pm, when about 300 protesters occupied Causeway Road, where Chou Pui-lam and Law Kok-sum were setting up barricades.

A police officer who witnessed Law instructing protesters to flee pursued and subdued him outside Queen's College. Law struggled fiercely, and Chou tried to pull Law away.

During the chaos someone used an umbrella to attack the police officer about the head, and then Wong rushed forward to wound the officer with a knife.

Wong fled and went to the Kwun Tong pier where he dropped his clothes and the knife in the sea. He was later arrested and escorted off the London-bound plane by police.

Wong and his girlfriend Cheung Tsz-ching also pleaded not guilty to perverting the course of justice.

Judge Frankie Yiu Fun-che adjourned the case to October 13, with the defendants remanded in custody.

Hui Chi-kit actively provided information analysis and advice to others to violate the law. SING TAO

Law Kok-sum, left, and Chou Pui-lam arrive at District Court. SING TAO

Bomb-making advice lands engineer in jail