Hong Kong Tiananmen activists found guilty of national security charges

Activist group says the ‘twisted’ Hong Kong judicial system had long ago decided that the pair were guilty.A Hong Kong court has found two pro-democracy activists guilty on national security charges in a trial widely viewed as exemplifying the erosion of freedom of expression in the Chinese city.Lee Cheuk-yan, 69, and Chow Hang-tung, 41, former leaders of the China" class="entity-link entity-organization" data-entity-id="16309" data-entity-type="organization">Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China, were found guilty of “incitement to subversion” for their role in organising candlelit vigils to mark Beijing’s deadly 1989 Tiananmen crackdown, in a Hong Kong court on Friday. The two had pleaded not guilty and were charged in 2021.Recommended Stories list of 3 itemslist 1 of 3Hong Kong court rejects appeal in landmark subversion caselist 2 of 3Hong Kong grants police power to demand phone and computer passwordslist 3 of 3UK court convicts two men for spying for Hong Kong, Chinaend of listThe pair could face up to 10 years in jail. Sentencing is expected at a later date.Prosecutors argued that the pair “endanger[ed] national security in the name of human rights”.Chow, a human rights barrister who represented herself, told the court in May that the law itself was on trial.Friday’s verdict was “no surprise”, said Mark Clifford, president of the Committee for Freedom in Hong Kong Foundation.Hong Kong’s “twisted” judicial system had already decided the pair were guilty in 2021, he said. He described Lee and Chow as “true Chinese patriots” who were silenced because they “spoke truth to power” and “held up a mirror to the Chinese Communist Party”.Pro-democracy activists, from left, Lee Cheuk-yan, Cheung Man-kwong and Chow Hang-tung, attend a 2019 vigil for the victims of the Tiananmen Square massacre [File: Tyrone Siu/Reuters]Hong Kong’s crackdownFor three decades, the candlelight vigil organised by the alliance was the only large-scale public commemoration of the Tiananmen crackdown, drawing tens of thousands of people annually to mourn the victims in China. The event was banned in 2020 during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, weeks before Beijing imposed the security law on Hong Kong to quell the 2019 massive antigovernment protests.