Hong Kong’s Court of Appeal on 3 September 2026 allowed Zhang Haoyang’s appeal against his prison term, reducing it from six years to five years and four months. The case concerned an alleged 2021 plan to place or detonate bombs at courts or other locations.
Reports said Zhang provided funding and information about explosives or their manufacture, and helped recruit participants. The trial judge regarded his involvement as substantial and said he was close to the stage of making and using bombs.
The original sentence was based on an eight-year starting point. The trial judge reduced it to six years after Zhang pleaded guilty; one report said no further reduction was granted at trial.
Zhang initially gave evidence for the prosecution against co-defendant Chan Hoi-leung. Reports said police later suspected Zhang had concealed his own culpability and misled them, after which Zhang was prosecuted and the case against Chan was withdrawn.
Reports linked the case to the organisation Guangchengzhe (光城者) and some of its members, but they differed over the number of people involved and the precise charges. The accounts described either seven or eight people in the wider case, while another report referred to Zhang and six Guangchengzhe members.
Zhang’s revised sentence is five years and four months. The supplied reports do not set out the Court of Appeal’s detailed legal reasons, nor establish a single definitive account of the final charges or total number of defendants.