A Hong Kong student has been jailed for eight weeks over impersonating a TVB actor and withdrawing him from the city’s organ donation registry last May.
Wong Tsz-ching, 20, appeared at the Eastern Magistrates’ Courts on Wednesday. Earlier this month, he pleaded guilty to criminal damage linked to a withdrawal application he made on the city’s organ donation registry.
The charge relates to Wong filing an application on the Centralised Organ Donation Registry’s website on May 23, 2023, in which he entered the personal information of TVB actor Cho Wing-lim. Cho is known for his support of the police.
Under police caution, the 20-year-old said he learnt from the news that there was a wave of withdrawal applications from the registry. He said he decided to submit the application “for fun” and “out of curiosity.”
The series of withdrawals came after the government proposed integrating Hong Kong hospitals with the China Organ Transplant Response System, mainland China’s mechanism for allocating organs.
Local media outlets reported that some Hongkongers said in social media posts that they would be reluctant to donate organs to the mainland. Chief Executive John Lee condemned the withdrawals as “very similar” to behaviour during the protests and unrest in 2019, when Hongkongers demonstrated against the local and central authorities.
Magistrate Stephanie Tsui sentenced Wong on Wednesday, RTHK reported. She said the case was serious and that his actions had harmed the public’s interests. The registry was an important part of the city’s organ donation mechanism, Tsui added.
The defence said they would appeal his sentence. Wong, who has been in custody since pleading guilty, was released on HK$20,000 bail pending the appeal.
‘Spirit of selfless love’
Wong admitted to the police after his arrest last year that he had obtained Cho’s information from a doxxing website, Ming Pao reported. Earlier, the court also heard that Wong had filed withdrawal applications using the information of pro-Beijing lawmaker Junius Ho and former chief executive Carrie Lam, although neither application was ultimately completed.
Managed by the Department of Health, the Centralised Organ Donation Registry requires applicants to submit their identity number, date of birth, mobile phone number and address to file a withdrawal application.
When Lee condemned the “abnormal” withdrawals last year, he said those behind the acts were “individual shameless people.”
Last May, the government said the withdrawals “completely go against the spirit of selfless love in organ donation.”
“Some individuals also wantonly vilify the constructive significance of the proposed establishment of a standing mutual assistance mechanism for transplant by the two places, undoubtedly despising the inseparable ties between citizens of Hong Kong and the Mainland,” the government’s statement read.
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