Three Hong Kong pro-democracy activists who helped organise the city’s annual Tiananmen Square vigil have been sentenced to lengthy prison terms for inciting subversion.
Human rights lawyer Chow Hang-tung was sentenced to seven years and three months in prison, while former opposition lawmaker Lee Cheuk-yan received a seven-year jail term.
Veteran pro-democracy lawmaker Albert Ho, who pleaded guilty, was sentenced to five years and two months.
The three were prominent members of the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China, the group that organised an annual candlelight vigil commemorating the victims of the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown in Beijing.
The gathering, which attracted thousands of people over the years, became a major symbol of Hong Kong’s political freedoms.
Participants often called for greater democracy in China and chanted slogans including “end one party rule.”
The West Kowloon Court also fined the Hong Kong Alliance HK$1.5m ($191,300).
The organisers were found guilty last month after prosecutors argued that their activities and calls for an end to “one-party dictatorship” amounted to incitement to subversion.
In a statement posted on her Patreon page before Friday’s sentencing, Chow said her conviction showed that “pursuing democracy is a crime.”
She added, “If doing so makes me a criminal for life – if the law truly cannot accommodate our beliefs – then I would rather be a criminal than a person who betrays their conscience.”
The trial judges said the offences occurred during “a turbulent and unsettled social atmosphere” and accused the group of spreading “subversive” messages through its activities and social media.
They acknowledged that “Although the present cases did not involve violence or threat of violence, nor had the defendants put forward any specific means of implementation or timetable to carry out ‘end one-party dictatorship,’ the court found that the offense was still of a serious nature.”
The sentences are the latest development in Hong Kong’s national security crackdown, which followed mass pro-democracy protests in 2019.
The introduction of national security laws in 2020 led to the dissolution of several civil society groups, the closure of some independent media outlets and the imprisonment or exile of many activists.
The annual Tiananmen vigil, once held at Victoria Park in Causeway Bay, was also discontinued following the crackdown.
For decades, mourners had gathered there on June 4 to remember those killed when Chinese troops suppressed the pro-democracy demonstrations around Beijing’s Tiananmen Square in 1989.
The Chinese government and Hong Kong authorities have defended the national security laws as necessary to restore order and stability, while critics and human rights organisations say they have severely restricted political freedoms in the territory.
Hong Kong Chief Executive John Lee welcomed the activists’ convictions last month, saying, “Their conspiracy was abundantly clear, which must be brought to justice,”
A long-time attendee of the vigils, retiree Simon Ng, said he came to court on Friday with a heavy heart, arguing that peaceful expression had effectively been criminalised.
“Hundreds of thousands of people had attended them in the past. This is an accusation against all of them,” he told CNN.
Zhou Fengsuo, a former student leader of the 1989 Tiananmen protests who is now a US citizen, said the verdict demonstrated “how profoundly Hong Kong has changed.”
“Authorities can extinguish the candles in Victoria Park, but they cannot extinguish the memory of June 4,” he added.
