Photo courtesy of Anadolu
Three former leaders of the organization once responsible for Hong Kong’s annual Tiananmen Square commemorations were handed prison sentences ranging from more than five to seven years Friday following proceedings under the city’s national security law.
Chow Hang-tung received the longest term at seven years and three months, while Lee Cheuk-yan was sentenced to seven years, according to the South China Morning Post.
Albert Ho Chun-yan, who admitted the charge before the trial began, was ordered to serve five years and two months.
The High Court also fined the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China HK$1.5 million, or about $192,000, despite the organization having dissolved five years ago.
The case centered on the alliance’s decades-long advocacy for political change in mainland China, including its call to end one-party rule, which prosecutors treated as an attempt to undermine state power.
In convicting Lee, Chow and the organization of inciting subversion, the judges found that their activities fostered opposition to the Communist Party, including by connecting the 1989 Tiananmen crackdown with Hong Kong’s turbulent anti-government demonstrations in 2019.
Before its dissolution in 2021, the alliance was best known for organizing candlelight gatherings at Victoria Park every June 4, making Hong Kong one of the few places on Chinese soil where large public commemorations of the 1989 crackdown had regularly taken place.
The sentencing represents another significant application of the national security law introduced by Beijing in June 2020, which covers secession, subversion, terrorism and collusion with foreign forces.