HONG KONG - A HONG Kong court on Friday sentenced a man from mainland China to 16 years in jail for possessing firearms with the intention to harm leading pro-democracy campaigner Martin Lee.

A seven-member jury convicted Huang Nanhua, also known as Wong Siu-ming, of one count of carrying arms and ammunition with intent to cause an arrestable offence.

Huang was accused of plotting to shoot Mr Lee and media mogul Jimmy Lai, both central figures pushing for democracy in the southern Chinese city. Huang had pleaded not guilty to the charge.

Mr Lee is a founding member of the city's Democratic Party and a top barrister. Mr Lai is chairman of Next Media, which runs newspapers and magazines in Hong Kong and Taiwan that are strongly critical of China's ruling Communist Party.

Both Mr Lee and Mr Lai were also at the forefront of the campaign to remember those who led weeks of protest in Tiananmen Square in Beijing in 1989 that was only ended by a bloody military crackdown.

'I have no doubt that, at the least, Martin Lee was the object of criminal attention,' Judge Peter Line said during Huang's sentencing.

'No court will know the motive of those who paid you, but common sense tells one that it must relate either to his politics or his profession. The criminal courts of Hong Kong will not tolerate men like you with guns at their side coming here to target such people to teach them a lesson,' he added.

The alleged shooting plot was foiled after an officer stopped Huang by chance at a police checkpoint in August last year, where he was found to have a homemade pistol and five rounds of ammunition in his bag. The police also found Huang carrying papers with information related to Mr Lee and Mr Lai.

The judge said the starting point for the sentence was 12 years' imprisonment, and that he had opted for the heavier sentence due to the gravity of the crime.

'Conduct such as yours injures us all. The public will not tolerate it. It is bound to attract such a deterrent sentence,' he said. -- AFP