Bookseller Lam Wing-kee’s paint attackers hit with longer jail term after appeal
A Taiwanese court has increased the jail terms of the three men who attacked Hong Kong bookseller Lam Wing-kee with paint last year.
Cheng Chi-lung, who hired brothers Tseng Shih-feng and Tseng Shih-cheng to pour red paint onto Lam last April on the self-ruled island, will now be incarcerated for eight months.
Tseng Shih-feng, who carried out the action, will spend seven months in prison. His brother, who took pictures of the incident, has been sentenced to six months in prison but the jail term can be replaced by a fine according to Taiwanese law.
The new sentences stemmed from Lam’s appeal and are an increase from the previous terms of three to four months. According to the island’s law, sentences of under six months for certain cases can be replaced by a fine of NT$1,000 to NT$3,000 (US$35.5 to US$106) per day.
The court explained that the higher sentences reflected Lam’s fears of more attacks and mainland Chinese persecution while living in Taiwan.
Lam was one of five booksellers who disappeared from Hong Kong before resurfacing in detention in mainland China in 2015. He told journalists about the ordeal after his release and return to Hong Kong in 2016.
He fled to Taiwan in 2019 after Hong Kong proposed a new law that could have seen defendants being transferred to mainland China for trial. The bill was eventually withdrawn, but led to social unrest in the city that lasted over a year.
Responding to the new sentences, Lam said he believed the three men were acting under instructions from someone else. He was concerned that others would imitate the trio if they could pay off their jail terms.
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