Hong Kong court hands stiff jail sentences to Tiananmen vigil activists

A Hong Kong court on Friday handed multi-year prison terms to three well-known pro-democracy activists for their roles in organising annual commemorations of the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown. The sentences were imposed under the national security law Beijing introduced in 2020 after the large-scale protests of 2019, a law that has since been used to curb dissent in the city. Lee Cheuk-yan, 69, and Chow Hang-tung, 41, were each given seven-year terms for inciting subversion. Albert Ho, 74, a former Democratic Party leader, received a sentence of five years and two months after pleading guilty earlier this year. Court documents indicate the penalties are expected to account for time the defendants have already spent in custody. Judges said the defendants, who organised the now-disbanded Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China, breached the Chinese constitution by calling for what the ruling described as an "end to one-party dictatorship." The court noted the case did not involve violence and that the organisers had not proposed a timetable for that objective, but still characterised the conduct as serious. The alliance was ordered to pay a fine of 1.5 million Hong Kong dollars (about $191,000). Public memorials for the 1989 events had been permitted in Hong Kong and were seen as a marker of the city's distinct civil freedoms until the 2020 national security law outlawed such gatherings; the last vigil took place in 2019. International bodies including the United Nations, rights organisations and foreign governments condemned the convictions, and Taiwan's Mainland Affairs Council said authorities had "fabricated charges and conducted political trials in the name of national security to shield an authoritarian regime." Lee's wife said he will appeal, and Chow — who represented herself at trial — has said she has "nothing to repent for."