A 27-year-old shop owner has been sentenced to jail for three weeks after admitting that he reposted the personal information of a police officer on Facebook, breaching an injunction against the “doxxing and harassment” of police officers.

Monday’s ruling was the first time that a Hongkonger has been jailed for contravening the injunction, which came into effect in October 2019 at the height of the pro-democracy protest movement.

Chan Kin-chung was said to have published four posts on Facebook on Nov. 11 last year, shortly after a police officer shot a protester with a live round in Sai Wan Ho. The posts included photos of the officer in question, as well as personal information of his wife and daughters.

The posts were captioned with phrases such as “murderer of Sai Wan Ho” and “as you sow, so shall you reap.” Chan deleted the posts three days later, and told the court that he thought they were only viewable to his 600 Facebook friends.

Chan said he had no intention of inciting violence, and offered apologies to the court and the affected officer.

High Court judge Russell Coleman said on Monday the damage done to the victims was lasting, as the doxxed personal information was widely distributed on the internet and might never be completely removed.

Coleman also said that the captions on the Facebook posts were provocative, and showed that Chan had intent to harass the police officer. It was also offensive and incomprehensible for the posts to target the officer’s wife and daughters, the judge said.

The victim told the court that the doxxing incident had a major impact on his family’s mental health, and that they had to move because their residential address was made public. He also said he received harassment phone calls and that his daughter was bullied in school.

Coleman said that a suspended jail term was not enough to reflect Chan’s criminal culpability and sentenced him to 21 days in prison.

In October 2019, Hong Kong police obtained a court order to prevent the disclosure of personal data belonging to officers and their extended families. The injunction also banned “intimidating, molesting, harassing, threatening, pestering or interfering” with police officers — a formulation which some legal experts at the time said was overly broad.

Prior to Chan’s case, two people were found guilty of breaching the court order and were each given a one-year suspended sentence.

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