Three sent to prison in assault on reporter

A court here sentenced two men and one woman to several years in prison for assaulting a Chinese state media reporter during a protest that paralyzed the territory’s international airport in 2019.

The sentences ranged from four years and three months to 5 ½ years — the heaviest penalties handed down in the protest movement that engulfed Hong Kong that year, according to a lawyer for one of the defendants.

The assault took place during a drawn-out occupation of the airport by anti-government protesters in August 2019 that resulted in the cancellation of hundreds of flights and crippled one of the world’s busiest transit hubs for two days.

The judge said footage of the incident proved the guilt of the three defendants: Lai Yun-long, 20; Amy PatWai-fan, 25; and Ho Ka-lok, 30.