Hours after finding Tong Ying-kit, a young man who on June 1, 2020, hit three policemen with a motorcycle displaying the words "Liberate Hong Kong, revolution of our times", to be guilty of secession and a terrorist attack on Monday, the three judges received threatening phone calls.

This was not the first time this happened to Hong Kong Special Administrative Region judges defending the law. In May, judge Amanda Woodcock received threats against her family after having found media tycoon Jimmy Lai Chee-ying guilty. In April, when judge Kwok Wai-kin sentenced a criminal who knifed people to 45 months in prison, rioters threatened to knife and burn Kwok too.

There are too many such cases to mention, and they all share one thing in common: rioters. Whenever a judge found rioters or their organizers guilty, that judge will very likely be threatened.

On the one hand, that's the best evidence of the shameless hypocrisy of the rioters and their organizers who are all trying to victimize Hong Kong. They spoke of "democracy" and "freedom", but then used knives and motorcycles to attack people voicing their own opinions. They cried out for "rule of law", but then threatened judges that make decisions according to the law.

On the other hand, the successive threats reveal the cowardice of the groups of rioters and their organizers. Hitting police with a motorcycle and attacking people with a knife are serious crimes everywhere, yet they still did this or commanded the acts. Then they dared to evade responsibility for their wrongdoing and tried to shrug it off. After finding that trick impossible, they turned to threatening judges as a last resort.

They don't even dare show their true identities in the whole process because they know they are wrong. No word is more suitable than "coward" to describe their deeds.

Whoever they are, the rioters and the people behind them will never dream of escaping their deserved penalties. On Friday, the latest news report said that Tong has been sentenced to nine years in prison, setting a good example for the rest of the rioters.

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