Hong Kong Tiananmen vigil activists convicted under nat. security law, face up to 10 years in prison

Hong Kong Tiananmen vigil activists Chow Hang-tung and Lee Cheuk-yan have been convicted of incitement to subversion under a Beijing-imposed national security law.

At the West Kowloon Law Courts Building, three national security judges on Friday handed down the guilty verdict in the trial of Chow and Lee Cheuk-yan, both former leaders of the now-defunct Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China.

For decades, it organised vigils in Causeway Bay’s Victoria Park to commemorate the 1989 Tiananmen crackdown in Beijing when hundreds, perhaps thousands, were killed as troops dispersed demonstrators around Tiananmen Square.

The pair, who have been behind bars since September 2021, now face up to a decade in prison.

During the trial, prosecutors accused the Alliance of inciting others to topple the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP) through its calls to “end one-party rule” in China, a key tenet of the group since its founding in 1989.

A third defendant, former lawmaker Albert Ho, pleaded guilty when the trial opened in January.

In a summary of the verdict reasoning, the judges said Lee, Ho and Chow had “all along been hostile towards the CCP and the Central Government under its leadership… They adhered to the course of resisting the Central Government and refusing to make any compromise.”

After the national security law was implemented, the trio “refused to pull back from the brink and were bent on embracing the resistance line of the Alliance to the very end,” the judges said.

The hand-picked judges acknowledged that the activists did not suggest “any specific method or timetable on carrying out the goal of ‘end one party dictatorship,’” and that the Alliance never used or advocated violence.

But they said the defendants still spread the goal of “end one-party dictatorship” after the security law was passed, and compared the anti-extradition protests and unrest in 2019 to the “June 4th Incident” – the Tiananmen crackdown.

“[This stirred] up the hostility of [Hongkongers] towards the CCP, eroding and undermining the public’s confidence in its leadership,” they said.

Earlier, prosecutors argued that the Alliance’s calls breached China’s constitution, after a 2018 amendment stipulated that the CCP’s leadership is the “defining feature” of the country’s “fundamental” socialist system.

Tiananmen trio trial verdict summary by HKFP

Chow, a barrister-turned-activist who represented herself throughout the trial, mounted a defiant defence during her closing submission in May.

“What the court has been asked to ban, to punish in this case are, in fact, what society and the law should encourage… They are the core values of Hong Kong, the norms and ideals accumulated through generations,” she told the court in Cantonese.

Lawyer Erik Shum, who represented Lee, urged the court that it “must not pay lip service” to human rights protections, as he argued that freedom of expression was at stake.

As the verdict was handed down, some family members and friends in the public gallery raised their fists and made heart signals at the defendants.

Heavy police presence

Amid a heavy police presence outside the courtroom on Friday morning, supporters of the activists hugged each other and chatted with their friends and family members, including Lee’s wife, Elizabeth Tang.

As with other major national security cases, the Judiciary opened up an extension courtroom where the proceedings were broadcast to cater to the large number of journalists and members of the public.

People started lining up for public gallery tickets as early as Tuesday – local media have previously suggested that some may be members of “queuing gangs.” They are not pro-democracy supporters, but believed to be paid by unknown groups to grab tickets to reduce the chances of others being able to get a seat in the main courtroom.

Several former members of the Alliance, including Tang Ngok-kwan and Lau Ka-yee, were present at the proceedings. Other activists, including dentist Lee Ying-chi and “female Long Hair” Lui Yuk-lin, also attended the verdict hearing.

Both Tang Ngok-kwan and Lee Ying-chi told local media they were searched by police and asked not to bring certain items into the court building. Materials that Tang had brought along included old newspaper clippings relating to the Alliance – they were confiscated by police.

Lee said a keychain from the Hong Kong Journalists Association was also taken by police, according to The Witness.

They were told they could pick them up at the police station later, local media reported.

The Alliance disbanded in 2021 after authorities banned the vigil for two years, citing Covid-19 restrictions, and arrested its leadership on national security allegations.