Pro-democracy activist Avery Ng was today sentenced to three weeks in prison for throwing a fish sandwich at Hong Kong’s former leader CY Leung, which missed its target and hit a nearby policeman.
The 40-year-old activist, however, was granted bail in order to lodge an appeal against the conviction for “common assault”.
Speaking on the phone after the verdict, Ng said he had “no regrets” about lobbing the tuna-filled snack.
“It was an honor to work for the underprivileged and I would do it again and again and again,” Ng, chairman of the League of Social Democrats political party, told Coconuts Hong Kong.
“For the sentencing, I understand from the judge’s own personal point of view or his role, that he needs to make a judgement, but I warned him that any judgement that aims for deterrence, to deter myself from protesting in the future, will be pointless, because I will continue.”
During the trial earlier this month, Ng told the court he had intended to give Leung the sandwich as a stunt to highlight the plight of the city’s elderly poor, many of whom he said could not afford to buy a similar snack.
He decided to let fly, however, after seeing the chief executive’s “smug face,” but added that he expected Leung would catch the sandwich rather than duck.
CY Leung testified that he was “scared” by what had been described in court as a “wet and soft” projectile.
The police officer who took the full force of the smelly snack, meanwhile, told the court his vest had been stained.
In an interview with Coconuts Hong Kong yesterday, Ng, who grew up in Hong Kong then migrated to New Zealand while in high school before returning to the city and joining the League for Social Democrats in 2009, said he expected to eventually be imprisoned for his activities.
“It’s just a matter of when, not if,” he said.
He is no stranger to legal troubles.
Though today is his first conviction, he faced court for “causing a public nuisance” after lobbing a T-shirt from a footbridge at a motorcade carrying former Chinese president Hu Jintao in 2012.
He also faced legal action over a protest outside the Chinese liaison office following CY Leung’s election as chief executive that same year.
In addition to his appeal against the assault conviction, Ng faces two more pending cases: one for a protest last year, and another brought by the city’s ICAC for disclosing that a government official was the subject of an investigation.
Ng said the cases against him are politically motivated.
“First of all, legally, the government has always wanted to send a message to future protesters. A warning message that something as minor as throwing a sandwich could get you into jail,” he said.
“They know that they’re not going to stop me, but they hope that they can stop newcomers or other protesters.”
According to RTHK, the judge today said the verdict was related to the “violence” and “unlawful act” and not to Ng’s cause.
The activist, however, maintained that hurling the sandwich was justified.
“The simple reason why I had to resort to this protest is that we ran out of other avenues to change the system,” he said.
“The government repeatedly refuses to do so with over a trillion dollars of public reserve, one of the largest in Asia.”
He said his case — and the multiple other prosecutions of activists in recent years — showed there was little tolerance for dissent.
“It shows that underneath the surface of a metropolitan, financial hub of the world, it is run by a backward, conservative government that would rather see tens of thousands of elderly people living in poverty and can’t even handle a soft, fluffy, harmless sandwich.”
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