Hong Kong's Tiananmen activists sentenced to up to seven years in prison

Three Hong Kong activists who organised annual vigils commemorating Beijing's 1989 crackdown on Tiananmen Square protests have been handed prison sentences of up to seven years.

Two of the defendants - Lee Cheuk-yan, 69, and Chow Hang-tung, 41 - were convicted last month of inciting others to subvert state power, under the city's controversial national security law.

A third defendant, Albert Ho, 74, had pleaded guilty in January.

For years, Hong Kong was one of the only places in Chinese territory where people could hold gatherings to mark the Tiananmen Square crackdown - a topic that is highly sensitive and heavily censored in mainland China.

These gatherings were banned by Hong Kong's authorities in 2020, citing Covid-19 policies, but never resumed. That same year, the national security law, which makes illegal a wider range of dissenting acts, officially came into force.

Authorities say the law is necessary to maintain stability, but critics argue it has eroded Hong Kong's autonomy and created a climate of fear.

Lee, Chow and Ho were charged in 2021. They faced up to 10 years in prison after their conviction.

On Friday, the court sentenced Lee to seven years in prison, while Chow was handed seven years and three months. Ho, who pleaded guilty, was sentenced to five years in prison.

According to a court summary in August, Lee and Chow had "incited other persons to organise, plan, commit or participate in acts by unlawful means with a view to subverting the state power", according to a summary on Friday.

Chow told the court in May the law itself was on trial.

Speaking to the BBC before her arrest in 2022, Chow said she was "prepared to be arrested" and "willing to pay the price for fighting for democracy".

The defendants were leaders of the now-disbanded Hong Kong Alliance, a group founded in May 1989 to support students holding pro-democracy rallies.

Weeks later, the Chinese Communist Party sent troops and tanks to crush pro-democracy protests in Beijing's Tiananmen Square. Estimates of the death toll range from a few hundred to many thousands.

Over the next three decades, the Hong Kong Alliance called on authorities to accept responsibility for the crackdown, free dissidents and introduce democratic reform.

The group also held yearly vigils commemorating the Tiananmen Square crackdown. Organisers said some of the gatherings attracted more than 100,000 people, though police had lower estimates of the turnout.

On Friday, the court also handed a HK$1.5m fine ($191,000; £142,000) to the Hong Kong Alliance.

"This sentencing is a triple tragedy: for the activists being unjustly punished; the survivors and victims of the Tiananmen crackdown itself; and the generations of Hongkongers denied the space to discuss one of the most consequential events in modern Chinese history," said Amnesty International's Deputy Regional Director Sarah Brooks.