A Hong Kong court on Friday convicted two pro-democracy activists on “incitement to subversion” charges for organizing peaceful vigils in memory of the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre.
The two activists, 69 year-old former lawmaker Lee Cheuk-yan and 41 year-old lawyer Chow Hang-tung, face up to ten years in prison.
As Breitbart News reported, the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China was a pro-democracy organization that, for decades, held candlelight vigils to mark the June 4, 1989 Tiananmen massacre. The Chinese communist regime used the Coronavirus pandemic as an excuse to ban the activity in 2020 and forced the group to disband in 2021.
Lee and Chow were made to stand trial this year for allegedly leading others to participate in actions “aimed at subjecting” the Chinese regime’s state power through the yearly peaceful vigils. The two activists have remained imprisoned since 2021.
The charges stem from the Chinese regime’s tyrannical “National Security Law” imposed upon Hong Kong in 2020. The Chinese Communist Party used the draconian law to crush the massive 2020 wave of pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong — effectively criminalizing any criticism of the Chinese regime. A third defendant, 74 year-old former lawmaker Albert Ho, pleaded guilty to the charges in January.
FILE: Chinese Communist riot police beat student pro-democracy demonstrators during the Tiananmen Square protests of April-June 1989 in Beijing, China. (Peter Turnley/Getty)
The BBC reports that the two activists were found guilty of the charges and face a potential maximum penalty of ten years in prison. The sentence is reportedly expected at a later date. Per the BBC, Chow “smiled” as the court read the verdict while Lee “showed little emotion” and made a hearth gesture as a show of gratitude to those present in the gallery.
The verdict, according to the Hong Kong Free Press, was issued by a panel of three “hand-picked” judges at the West Kowloon Law Courts Building. Per the outlet, court proceedings were adjourned until next Friday for mitigation ahead of sentencing.
Per AFP, a press summary of the ruling shared by the court claims that Lee and Chow “incited other persons to organize, plan, commit or participate in acts by unlawful means with a view to subverting the state power.”
U.K. Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Indo-Pacific, Baroness Winterton of Doncaster, rejected the conviction of the two activists in remarks published by the Foreign Office on Friday morning.
FILE: A Beijing pro-democracy demonstrator blocks the path of a tank convoy along the Avenue of Eternal Peace near Tiananmen Square. For weeks, people protested for freedom of speech and of press from the Chinese government. ( CNN via Getty Images)
Winterton stated that the verdict is “further demonstration that even peaceful acts of remembrance in Hong Kong are now treated by the authorities as threats to national security.”
“The extensive use of Beijing’s National Security Law to punish and restrict peaceful expression undermines the commitments China made to Hong Kong under the 1984 Sino-British Joint Declaration,” the statement read.
“We reiterate our call for the National Security Law to be repealed, and for rights and freedoms to be respected in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region,” the text concludes.
According to the BBC, Hong Kong was one of the only places in Chinese territory in which people could freely observe the Tiananmen Square massacre prior to the 2020 ban. The “National Security Law” has since then banned not just said practices, but a wider list of dissenting acts against China’s communist regime.
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