The Hong Kong Tiananmen vigil activists convicted in security trial
A Hong Kong court sentenced three pro-democracy activists on Friday who organised annual vigils to mark China's deadly Tiananmen crackdown on charges of "incitement to subversion".
The closely watched national security case was seen as a bellwether for freedom of expression in the Chinese city.
Lee Cheuk-yan, 69, Chow Hang-tung, 41, and Albert Ho, 74 were leaders of the now-defunct Hong Kong Alliance, and have been behind bars since they were charged in 2021.
- Chow Hang-tung: Seven years and three months -
Chow, 41, is a Cambridge-educated lawyer who represented herself at the trial, speaking at a brisk pace and responding to questions quickly.
Part of a generation that came of age after Hong Kong's 1997 return to Chinese rule, she attended the vigils from childhood and joined the Alliance in 2010 as a volunteer.
She worked for years in an advocacygroup focused on rights in China.
She became a spokesperson for the Alliance after Beijing imposed a national security law on the city in 2020, following huge and sometimes violent protests the year before.
Held in custody since 2021, Chow has undertaken a hunger strike every June to commemorate the 1989 anniversary.
She quoted Nobel Peace Prize laureate and Chinese Tiananmen activist Liu Xiaobo during the trial, saying the Alliance had no enemies but rather opposed one-party rule.
She told the court that seeking justice for Tiananmen victims is a moral duty, which "should not be classified as incitement to commit a crime".
"No matter how omnipotent the (Chinese) Communist Party's leadership may be, it cannot dictate our conscience," Chow said in her closing submissions.
Chow's mother said that on one prison visit, she was told by her daughter that to "speak the truth on her own behalf to heart (in court)" was "liberating".
- Lee Cheuk-yan: Seven years -
Lee, 69, was the last chair of the Alliance before it disbanded in 2021.
He has been actively engaged in Hong Kong's labour movement since the 1970s, as well as on human rights issues in China.
"I have dedicated my life to fighting for freedom of association, hoping that China will have independent trade unions," he told the court in March.
Lee visited the students demonstrating in Beijing for political reform in late May 1989 in the Alliance's early days.
He was present when the government sent in troops and tanks to quash the protesters on June 4 that year, and has said he heard gunfire and saw the wounded and dead on Tiananmen Square.
Lee was detained by police when trying to leave Beijing in 1989, but was allowed to return to Hong Kong after an outcry from the financial hub's citizens.
Lee told the court the experience made him realise that advancing democracy was his "lifelong commitment".
He also told the court repeatedly that "ending one-party rule does not mean ending the Communist Party's leadership".
"Based on my love for the people, I hoped the Communist Party would reform, to let people have the rights and happiness they deserve," he said.
- Albert Ho: Five years and two months -
Ho, 74, is a lawyer-turned-politician who led Hong Kong's now-dissolved Democratic Party and helped found the Alliance.
His legal practice worked on rights issues for decades, and he played a key role in the China Human Rights Lawyers Concern Group supporting mainland lawyers facing persecution.
The only defendant to plead guilty to the prosecutions, Ho served as a pro-democracy lawmaker for more than 20 years.
Ho told the Legislative Council in 2009 that "it is impossible for the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) to make use of its economic achievement to cover up the crime it has committed in massacring the people", referring to the June 4 crackdown.
"Nor can it use economic benefits to make the people forget this ugly historical episode," he added.
Prosecutors cited Ho as saying in May 2018 that in a democratic China, "naturally one-party rule has to end, (which) doesn't mean eliminating the Communist Party, it has the right to join elections".
Ho was diagnosed with lung cancer in 2017. The court refused to reduce his sentence on health grounds as his health condition "had become stable".
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