Chow Hang-tung, Lee Cheuk-yan and Albert Ho, who led Tiananmen Square vigils, accused of inciting subversion
The national security trial of three pro-democracy activists who organised an annual memorial in Hong Kong to mark the Tiananmen Square massacre is to begin on Thursday.
Chow Hang-tung, Lee Cheuk-yan and Albert Ho are charged with inciting subversion under Hong Kong’s national security law. Their trial is one of the most high-profile national security cases to be heard in Hong Kong since Beijing imposed the law in 2020. The defendants face a maximum penalty of 10 years’ imprisonment if convicted. The law has a near-100% conviction rate.
The three defendants were key members of the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China, the group that for decades organised the annual vigil for the victims of the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre in Beijing.
Until the vigil was banned in 2020 during the Covid-19 pandemic, amid a crackdown on free expression in Hong Kong, it was the only mass memorial event for the massacre on Chinese territory. For decades, it was a symbol of Hong Kong’s autonomy from mainland China, an identity that persisted even after Hong Kong was returned from British to Chinese rule in 1997.
