A man who turned up drunk at the pro-democracy protest camp in Mong Kong and threatened to burn it to the ground has been sentenced to six months in jail.
Ma Hei-yuk admitted brandishing a lighter and a bottle of paint thinner on Oct. 22, claiming he wanted to teach the demonstrators a lesson and that they would “die together”.
We don’t know what school he went to, but that’s some lesson. Luckily, Ma was subdued by demonstrators who weren’t too keen for his brand of education.
Ma appeared in Kowloon City Court this morning and pleaded guilty to one count of behaving in a disorderly manner in a public place. Doesn’t sound too bad when you put it that way, does it?
Magistrate Peter Law (apt name) clearly felt for the fella, handing down just half the maximum sentence of 12 months imprisonment.
According to the SCMP, Law said he could understand that tempers were running high because of Occupy Central, but that surely Ma could “could imagine serious harm would be done to lots of people”.
Ma said he was drunk and angry about the protests and that he felt great regret after his arrest.
Nothing like getting caught to help you grow a conscience it seems.
Photo: K.roll2007 via Flickr
