Hong Kong social worker sentenced to 21 weeks in prison, suspended for 12 months, for doxxing police officer

A Hong Kong social worker has been sentenced to 21 weeks in prison, with the sentence suspended for 12 months, for posting the full name of the police officer involved in a shooting in Sai Wan Ho during the 2019 extradition bill protests.

Lee Pak-nap, a 36-year-old social worker, appeared in front of High Court Judge Russell Coleman on Monday.

He earlier admitted liability to contempt of court, after violating a court injunction that banned the disclosure of the personal information of police officers involved in the 2019 protests, as well as the details of their extended family members.

Protests erupted in June 2019 over a since-axed extradition bill. They escalated into sometimes violent displays of dissent against police behaviour, amid calls for democracy and anger over Beijing’s encroachment. Demonstrators demanded an independent probe into police conduct, amnesty for those arrested and a halt to the characterisation of protests as “riots.”

The court also imposed an anonymity order in June 2020, which Lee also violated, in a criminal case involving those arrested over a Sai Wan Ho protest on November 11, 2019, barring the disclosure of the personal information of the officer who fired the live round.

The shooting occurred during a face-off bewteen protesters and police that day, resulting in 21-year-old Chow Pak-kwan being shot by a traffic officer. Chow was later sentenced to six years in jail after being found guilty of three charges, including attempting to snatch a police officer’s gun.

Lee’s case was the last of four doxxing cases the secretary for security sought to pursue in November 2022. The other three defendants included pro-democracy activist Joshua Wong, who was sentenced to three months in prison.

Lee posted the full name of the police officer, along with an article about the anonymity order, on Facebook in June 2, 2020, according to the justice minister’s representative, barrister Martin Ho.

Ho said on Monday that Lee’s case, “at the very moment,” would be the last doxxing case related to the incident that the justice minister would pursue, to which the judge said: “…it better be.”

Coleman 高浩文.jpg — Russell Coleman. Photo: Judiciary.

The justice minister’s representative asked the court to impose an immediate custodial sentence, saying that Lee was “intentionally challenging the court’s authority,” as the social worker was aware of the anonymity order when he made the Facebook post.

The delay in Lee’s decision to admit liability also showed a lack of remorse, Ho said, as the 36-year-old only made the admission in April this year, while he was served in December last year.

The court should also send a message to the public that such behaviour would not be tolerated, said Ho, and that while Lee had deleted the post following his arrest in June 2020, the damage of doxxing was long lasting.

Lee’s representative, barrister Jeffrey Tam, said in his mitigation statement that the 36-year-old’s job as a social worker could be affected by the sentence, and cited a delay of 22 months between the defendant’s arrest in June 2020 and the case being brought to court in December 2022.

november 11 arrest — Sai Wan Ho. Photo: Kevin Cheng/United Social Press.

Coleman, in a written judgement on Monday, said that “rights and freedoms do not exist in a vacuum.”

“They come with responsibilities. Any person claiming to exercise their own rights and freedoms must simultaneously have respect for the rights and freedoms of others,” the judgement read.

The judge also said that it was “fortunate” that Lee’s post did not receive a lot of engagement, and that he accepted that “the risk of future similar acts” from Lee was “relatively low,” as he “is now fully alive to the need properly to obey court orders.”

Apart from suspending the 21-week imprisonment for 12 months, Coleman also ordered Lee to pay HK$50,000 towards the secretary for justice’s cost.

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