A 26-year-old construction worker was convicted of rioting and assaulting a police officer during a siege of the Hong Kong police headquarters on Jun. 26 last year. It marked the first case found guilty of rioting by the court over last year’s anti-extradition protests.

The defendant, Shum Hiu-lun, had pleaded guilty to unlawful assembly and failing to surrender to custody after skipping a pretrial hearing while on bail. He denied charges of riot and assault occasioning actual bodily harm.

The court heard that Shum kicked and twice punched the plainclothes officer Cheung Kam-fok, who was surrounded by protesters when making his way back to the office. Cheung claimed that the face punch burst his mouth ulcer, which left him in pain for a week.

Judge Anthony Kwok found the officer’s injury uncommon in court and almost negligible.

It is therefore unnecessary to prosecute the defendant with the more severe charge of assault occasioning actual bodily harm under the Offences against the Person Ordinance, Kwok ruled. Without medical evidence to prove actual bodily harm, the district court judge convicted Shum of common assault instead.

The defense lawyer argued that Shum’s action was out of self-defense as the officer intentionally pushed over a woman when running towards the headquarters, but the court rejected the claim after viewing footage of the incident, saying the knocking over was an accident.

In his ruling, Kwok said that the defendant used illegal force against Cheung and participated in activities that had led to a breach of the peace, which constituted rioting.

Shum has been remanded in custody and will hear his sentence on Sep. 25.

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