Protester ‘worse than Yip Kai-foon’ gets 12 years

The High Court on Friday handed down the stiffest sentence yet in connection with the 2019 protests, sending a member of a now-disbanded pro-independence group to prison for 12 years for possessing explosives.

The judge said in some ways, the offence committed by Louis Lo, 29, was worse than the crimes of notorious robber Yip Kai-foon in the 80s and 90s.

Lo, who was a member of the Hong Kong National Front, pleaded guilty to keeping one kilogramme of the high grade explosive triacetone triperoxide (TATP) in an industrial building in Tsuen Wan.

The court heard that on July 19, 2019 police also found petrol bombs, slingshots and political pamphlets in the unit, as well as pro-independence materials at Lo’s home.

Judge Andrew Chan said evidence showed that Lo was the “mastermind behind the operation”, and that he had intended to subvert the SAR government.

Chan said that when it came to the sentence, he had taken reference of the 18-year jail term given to Yip in 1997, after the ‘king of thieves’ was caught with two kilogrammes of TNT explosives.

The judge cited a prosecution expert report as saying the sensitivity of TATP and how easily it can be detonated meant Lo had posed a greater risk to the public than Yip had.

Chan also said Yip, who died in 2017, had probably only been motivated by money.

“The defendant in this case is going after the Hong Kong SAR government and the stability of the region, with the intention of creating fear and terror among people in society,” the judge said.

“His criminality is just as serious, if not more, than Mr Yip’s.”

Lo waved to his supporters and family as he was escorted away from the courtroom, while a few people sobbed outside following the sentencing.