A Hong Kong court has sentenced three men to lengthy prison terms over a series of bomb plots in 2019 and 2020, marking one of the toughest verdicts handed down since the city’s protest years.
On Monday, 41-year-old Lukas Ho received an 18-year sentence after Judge Johnny Chan described him as having an “inflated ego” and showing “no remorse,” warning that his behaviour posed a serious “risk to public safety.”
“The court must provide sufficient deterrence,” Chan said. “If remorse is limited or superficial, there’s no way to talk about rehabilitation and correction.”
Ho’s co-defendants, Lee Ka-pan and Cheung Ka-chun, were sentenced to 16 years and eight months each. Both were granted minor sentence reductions as first-time offenders.
The men were convicted over a homemade bomb that detonated inside a hospital toilet in January 2020 and other explosive devices found at a railway station a month later. No casualties were reported.
Prosecutors said the trio’s motive was to pressure authorities into closing Hong Kong’s borders at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, when infections were spreading from mainland China.
Judge Chan called Ho the “mastermind” of the scheme and said his refusal to acknowledge guilt made him undeserving of leniency.
During sentencing, the three men remained calm and smiled at their friends and family as guards led them from the courtroom.
A jury had earlier acquitted five other defendants linked to the same case, which drew widespread attention amid Hong Kong’s continuing political and social divide.
The verdict comes at a time when Hong Kong’s judiciary faces scrutiny under Beijing’s tightened national security framework, though the case predates that law.
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