China11 September, 20262 min read
Hong Kong Court Sentences Lee Cheuk-yan, Chow Hang-tung, Albert Ho to Prison for Tiananmen Vigils
Three Tiananmen vigil organizers were sentenced to five to seven years in prison. Lee Cheuk-yan and Chow Hang-tung received seven years; Albert Ho five years two months.
Jail for Tiananmen vigil
A Hong Kong court sentenced three Tiananmen vigil activists to prison terms of between five and seven years for their roles in organising annual vigils marking the anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre. Lee Cheuk-yan, 69, and Chow Hang-tung, 41, were sentenced on Friday to seven years for inciting subversion, while Albert Ho, 74, received five years and two months after pleading guilty in January.
The verdict said the case did not involve violence and the defendants had not put forward a timetable for calling for an “end to one-party dictatorship,” but the court still found the offence “a serious nature.” Judges said the defendants breached the Chinese constitution by calling for an “end to one-party dictatorship,” and the now-disbanded Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China faces a fine of 1.5 million Hong Kong dollars ($191,000).
Condemnations and appeals
Elizabeth Tang, Lee Cheuk-yan’s wife, told Reuters that he would “definitely appeal” his sentence, while Chow Hang-tung told a hearing last month that she had “nothing to repent for.” Taiwan’s Mainland Affairs Council condemned the verdicts, saying authorities have “fabricated charges and conducted political trials in the name of national security to shield an authoritarian regime”.
The United Nations, rights groups, and foreign governments condemned the convictions under the national security law that Beijing imposed on Hong Kong following huge pro-democracy protests in 2020. In court, judges highlighted that the defendants were part of a group that organised annual commemorations marking Beijing’s 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown on pro-democracy protesters, and that public commemorations were outlawed in 2020 when the National Security Law came into force after mass protests in 2019.
National security crackdown
The sentencing was handed down under a national security law Beijing imposed on Hong Kong, and the court ruled in August that the activists breached the Chinese constitution by calling for an “end to one-party dictatorship.” Prosecutors argued that China’s constitution enshrines the primacy of the Communist Party, and the verdict read that although the case did not involve violence, the defendants’ offence remained “a serious nature.”
Hong Kong’s national security police chief Steve Li told reporters the sentences are “a stern warning to those who may be contemplating similar acts,” and he added, “Do not underestimate our determination to safeguard ... national security.” The case was described as a barometer of Hong Kong’s eroding freedoms, with the Reuters report noting that public commemorations of the 1989 protests used to be legal and tolerated in Hong Kong before being effectively outlawed in 2020 when the National Security Law came into force.