By James Pomfret and Jessie Pang
HONG KONG (Reuters) - A Hong Kong court convicted on Thursday prominent former pro-democracy lawmaker Lam Cheuk-ting for rioting after he was attacked by a white-shirted mob in July 2019 at the height of that year's pro-democracy protests.
On the night of July 21, 2019, more than 100 white-shirted men stormed the Yuen Long MTR station in the territory's northwest, attacking passers-by and journalists with clubs and sticks. Ten of the assailants ended up being convicted for rioting and conspiring to wound with intent.
Lam, 47, a long-standing member of the Democratic Party, was arrested 13 months after the incident and charged with rioting and helping instigate the violence.
He told the court he had rushed to the scene to help, but ended up being taken to hospital with head, mouth, arm and wrist injuries that required 16-18 stitches, after being attacked.
District court judge Stanley Chan said he did not believe Lam went to mediate, but instead wanted to extract some political advantage while his Facebook (NASDAQ:META) posts had drawn more people like a "magnet".
"His purpose was to provoke emotional confrontation with the white shirted people and fan the flames," Chan said.
Six other men: Yu Ka-ho, Jason Chan, Yip Kam-sing, Kwong Ho-lam, Wan Chung-ming and Marco Yeung were also convicted.
Some relatives started crying after the verdict, while Lam, who had pleaded not guilty like all the others, appeared impassive with his arms folded in the dock.
In a nearly four-hour session in a packed courtroom, Chan detailed how the men had retaliated by spraying fire hoses and fire extinguishers, as well as throwing water bottles at the mob.
He rejected arguments that some had acted with reasonable self defence or to protect others, but had displayed "riotous behaviour" that led the white-clad gang to be further provoked.
Chan also said the slow deployment of police that night was not an "excuse to provoke the other party, or even an excuse for using violence against violence".
Sentencing is on Feb. 27 with a maximum jail term of seven years.
In an ongoing crackdown on dissent in the Asian financial hub after the 2019 protests, pro-democracy campaigners have been jailed or exiled, liberal civil society and media outlets closed, and an electoral overhaul has blocked opposition democrats from elections.
Countries including the United States have criticised the crackdown, but Beijing and Hong Kong authorities say all are treated equally under the law, and the two sets of national security laws enacted since 2020 have restored stability.
Lam is already serving a sentence of six years and nine months on a separate national security charge.
"Such a verdict is unjust for those brave people who were trying to save passengers including myself from being assaulted by (the) white shirt clad mob, and an act of self-defence," Galileo Cheng, a journalist who was injured during the attack, told Reuters.
(This story has been corrected to say that ten of the assailants were convicted, not jailed, in paragraph 2)