HK court sentences trio over Tiananmen vigils

Three Hong Kong rights advocates who organized annual vigils in remembrance of China’s 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown yesterday were sentenced to about five to seven years in prison, with officials in Taiwan calling the punishment “harsh.”

Lee Cheuk-yan (李卓人), Chow Hang-tung (鄒幸彤) and Albert Ho (何俊仁) were convicted of inciting subversion earlier this year under a national security law.

Lee received a seven-year prison term and Chow was sentenced to seven years and three months. Both pleaded not guilty. Ho was given a lower sentence of five years and two months, partly because he pleaded guilty.

People hold posters supporting Hong Kong democracy advocates Lee Cheuk-yan, Chow Hang-tung and Albert Ho during a protest in Taipei yesterday.

Photo: Chiang Ying-ying, AP

The trio of defendants was charged in September 2021 and has been held in custody for years.

Hong Kong once had a vibrant civil society marked by protests and a freewheeling press, but after a 2019 protest movement rocked the territory, authorities reduced public choice in elections and prosecuted leaders of news firms.

After the sentencing, Lee’s wife, Elizabeth Tang (鄧燕娥), told reporters that Lee had been prepared for the worst and looked calm.

Tang said that he would appeal against the results.

Chow’s mother, Medina Chow Lau Wah-chun (劉華珍), joked that she had to thank those who had prosecuted Chow for helping to write the truth of the 1989 crackdown into the court records.

“Many years ago, my daughter already said that she wants to have a proper debate with them in court one day,” she said.

Chow’s friend Lau Ka-yee said Chow also would appeal.

In Taipei, the Mainland Affairs Council condemned the “heavy sentences” handed to the three.

“The pursuit of democracy and human rights is not a crime,” the council said in a statement, adding that authorities have “fabricated charges and conducted political trials in the name of national security to shield an authoritarian regime.”