Hong Kong Man Gets over Five Years in Prison for ‘Biting Off Cop’s Finger Tip’

A Hong Kong district court sentenced a 24-year-old man to nearly six years in prison on Monday for a series of offenses, including biting off the fingertip of a police sergeant during a pro-democracy protest in 2019.

District Judge Johnny Chan Jong-herng sentenced To Kai-wa to five and a half years in prison on March 15 after he was found guilty in February of four separate offenses: assaulting a police officer, inflicting grievous bodily harm, wounding with intent, and disorderly conduct in a public place.

Wounding with intent carries a maximum sentence of life in prison in Hong Kong, “but the term is capped at seven years when the case is heard at the District Court,” according to the South China Morning Post (SCMP).

To participated in a pro-democracy protest on July 14, 2019, at a mall in the Sha Tin area of Hong Kong. Police deployed to disperse the rally clashed with protesters, including To, who, according to the court case, “bit off the tip of police sergeant Leung Kai-yip’s right ring finger.”

“To was also found guilty of using an umbrella to hit superintendent Leung Tsz-kin, breaking his arm, and striking police constable Ip Cheuk-hin,” Radio Television Hong Kong (RTHK) reported on Monday.

District Judge Chan accepted in sentencing that “To did not set out to bite the sergeant, finding that he had only done so when the officer slipped his hand into the defendant’s mouth,” according to SCMP.

Hong Kong’s pro-democracy protest movement sparked in June 2019 in response to a now-scrapped extradition bill that would have allowed Beijing to transfer criminal suspects to China for trial. Mass protests against China’s growing influence on Hong Kong, a traditionally semi-autonomous city, continued in the global financial hub for another six months. Pro-China forces in Hong Kong’s government capitalized on the then-emerging Chinese coronavirus pandemic in early 2020 to restrict movement in the city and largely quell the street protests. To further ensure compliance from Hongkongers moving forward, China imposed a national security law on the city in June 2020 that allowed police to crack down on participants of lingering protests and criminally prosecute the movement’s main leaders.

New crimes under the law include secession, subversion, terrorism, and collusion with external or foreign forces. People found guilty of any of the crimes face a minimum prison sentence of ten years. Hong Kong authorities charged 47 pro-democracy activists with “conspiracy to subvert state powers” on February 28.