Page:HKSAR v. Tong Ying Kit (Sentence).pdf/8

-8- Kong by the PRC Central People’s Government; and 1 July 2020 was also the very next day after the NSL had come into effect.

20. It was our finding that the way in which the Defendant displayed the flag was clear proof that he intended to attract public attention and intended the flag to be seen by as many people as possible. Mr Grossman argued that the present circumstances were of a minor nature in that it was not an actual one-to-one communication. It would seem, in making that claim, that Mr Grossman was suggesting that an incitement to the public at large would be less effective an incitement when compared with that by way of a one-to-one communication. If that was the suggestion, then there was nothing to support this claim.

21. “An inciter is one who reaches and seeks to influence the mind of another to the commission of a crime. The machinations of criminal ingenuity being legion, the approach to the other’s mind may take many forms, such as a suggestion, proposal, request, exhortation, gesture, argument, persuasion, inducement, goading or the arousal of cupidity.” Given the various forms an incitement may take, its effectiveness must depend on the particular circumstances of the case in question. In any event, the criminality of the offence of incitement does not depend on the incitee actually acting upon the incitement to