A Hong Kong man who threw anti-government leaflets from his public flat has been sentenced to 10 months in prison after pleading guilty to rioting.
Raymond Wong appeared in the West Kowloon Magistrate’s Court on Tuesday to receive a 10-month prison sentence handed down by Chief Magistrate Victor So for two counts of “doing with intent to seditiously commit an act or acts having an intent to seditiously”, local media reported. reported.
Wong, a 55-year-old construction worker, admitted to throwing the leaflets from his unit in On Tat Estate, Kwun Tong, on two occasions in October 2024 and December 2025.
He was arrested in April and the following month, he pleaded guilty to the charges – an offense under Hong Kong’s national security law, also known as Article 23.
In mitigation, he apologized to his girlfriend and daughter, as their public housing unit was to be repossessed by the government for his transgression.
Citing a psychological report, Wong’s lawyers said the defendant did not know how to control the grief that had been created by losing his full-time job following the 2019 protests and the Covid-19 pandemic.
‘Premeditated and planned’
Noting that the leaflets were dropped after National Day two years ago and before last year’s Legislative Council (LegCo) elections, Magistrate So said Wong’s actions were “premeditated and planned to some extent”.
On October 2, 2024, Kwun Tong District Councilor Hsu Yau-wai reported 41 sheets of paper to the police after finding them on the podium of Lai Tat House in the estate. The newspapers had slogans on them saying “kill the police” and derogatory comments about the Chinese people.
On December 5 of last year, two days before “patriots only” LegCo polls.a property manager found letters scattered near the same area, with slogans such as “Free Hong Kong, don’t vote” written on it.
Wong’s lawyers said Tuesday that his methods were “primitive” and had limited impact compared to online postings.
So said he accepted the defense’s argument, but noted that Wong explicitly encouraged people to kill police officers, Chinese and government officials.
Wong incited hostility towards police and referred to mainlanders in “derogatory” and “dehumanizing” language, and his use of the slogan “Free Hong Kong”, considered secessionist under Beijing’s Hong Kong national security law, also challenged national sovereignty, the judge added.
The calls to boycott the LegCo elections also amounted to an attempt to undermine public confidence in the city’s electoral system, So said.
Turnout in last year’s polls was the second lowest on record, at 31.9 percent. Beijing overhauled the city’s election system in 2021 to ensure that only those deemed sufficiently patriotic can run.
Movement reduced democratic representation in the legislature, strengthened control of elections and established requirements for candidates to receive nominations from a small circle of political elites.
