12-yr-old Hong Kong protester pleads guilty but avoids criminal record as magistrate dismisses charges

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Criminal charges against a 12-year-old who admitted spraying protest-related graffiti at a police station and railway interchange were dismissed by a Hong Kong court on Thursday, preserving the boy’s clean record.

But the child, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was made subject to a care or protection order that imposes a curfew and compels him to take part in social activities as directed by the Social Welfare Department (SWD) for two years.