Bomb-plot student trio jailed for up to six years

Staff reporter

Two men and a woman of the now-defunct pro-independence group Returning Valiant have been imprisoned for their plan to plant bombs in court buildings and public transport in 2021.

The three included 21-year-old female student Kwok Man-hei being sentenced to 2- years and two male students, Ho Yu-wang, 19, and Cheung Ho-yeung, 23, to six years after they pleaded guilty to conspiracy to cause explosions and conspiring in terrorist acts.

High Court Judge Alex Lee Wan-tang said when handing down the sentences yesterday that the trio had detailed plans.

But Lee added the "corrosive nature" of the 2019 protest turned harmless people of previous good character into radicals.

"The hostile social atmosphere in 2019 and 2020 was such that it could easily cloud people's moral judgment," he said.

"The plan was without any doubt an evil one."

Lee said Cheung was originally a prosecution witness but he misled police. Officers also found later that Cheung was involved more in the case.

Lee said he believes that some defendants were good students before the social unrest in 2019.

However, their behavior was much different from what mitigation letters claimed.

Lee said Ho as the mastermind and Cheung had participated in the plan and had conducted site visits, while Hong Kong was still caught in social unrest.

Lee condemned Ho for planning to cause chaos and even putting his companions in danger.

With a starting point of 10 years imprisonment, Lee handed down a six-year jail term on Ho after he offered help to police after his arrest.

Lee also said Cheung agreed to recruit more people to join the plan and told Ho how to make the explosive material TATP.

And university student Cheung "should have known better" as the other defendants were secondary students.

Cheung was sentenced to six years, after a discount for pleading guilty.

Kwok pleaded guilty to one alternative charge of conspiracy to cause an explosion.

From a starting point of 5-1/2 years she was jailed for 2-1/2 years after Lee said she did not participate in the plan. She also pleaded guilty at an early stage and offered help to police.

She was sentenced to a training center order after pleading guilty to one count of conspiracy to incite subversion in October last year.

Another member of Returning Valiant, 21-year-old Alexander Au was jailed for five years and eight months in May for renting a flat for bomb-making, while three co-defendants under the age of 21 were sent to a training center. However, they were arrested by national security police in July before they procured the materials.