HONG KONG, Sept. 29 (Xinhua) -- Cheng Chung-tai, a member of the Legislative Council of China's Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, was found guilty of desecrating the national and regional flags on Friday.

The Eastern Magistrates' court in Hong Kong convicted Cheng of the charge and ordered him to pay a fine of 5,000 HK dollars (about 641.02 U.S. dollars).

On Oct. 19, 2016, Cheng flipped the national and regional flags in the Legislative Council chamber and was subsequently charged with desecrating the national and regional flags.

The court ruled that Cheng's acts amounted to desecration and added that Cheng must have known he had damaged the dignity of the flags by putting them upside down.

Desecrating the national and regional flags is an offence in Hong Kong, which carries a maximum penalty of a 50,000-HK-dollar fine and three years in prison. (1 U.S. dollar equals to 7.8 HK dollars)