AFP, HONG KONG
A Tiananmen activist yesterday told a Hong Kong court that she “totally embraced” actions the prosecution deemed crimes, as closing arguments in her national security trial entered their second day.Chow Hang-tung (鄒幸彤), 41, is standing trial for “incitement to subversion” along with her former colleague Lee Cheuk-yan (李卓人), 69. They face years behind bars if convicted.The pair were leaders of the now-defunct Hong Kong Alliance, a group that used to organize candlelight vigils to mark China’s deadly 1989 crackdown on demonstrators in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square. China imposed a National Security Law on the territory in 2020, and the alliance’s leaders were charged the following year and have been behind bars since.
Hong Kong pro-democracy activist Lee Cheuk-yan poses during a photo session in Hong Kong on March 21, 2021.
Chow, a Cambridge-educated barrister who is representing herself, smiled widely at supporters in the gallery as she entered the courtroom.Standing in front of a three-judge panel, she said it was a “weird” criminal case, because the defendants did not dispute the facts.
“The defendants fully embraced the actions that the prosecution alleged to be crimes,” Chow told the court, adding that their efforts were an expression of their beliefs.
