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Hong Kong's Tiananmen Square activists guilty in national security trial
BBC • • world
Key Points:
- Two Hong Kong activists, Lee Cheuk-yan and Chow Hang-tung, have been found guilty of inciting subversion under the city's national security law, facing up to 10 years in prison.
- The activists organized annual vigils commemorating the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown, which were banned by authorities in 2020 citing Covid-19 restrictions.
- The national security law, introduced in 2020 by China, criminalizes a wide range of dissenting acts, leading to the suppression of pro-democracy activities in Hong Kong.
- Lee and Chow have been detained since 2021, with human rights groups condemning their prosecution as unjust and calling for their immediate release.
- In a related case, Chow was initially convicted for inciting participation in the vigil but had her conviction overturned by Hong Kong’s top court in 2022 due to insufficient police justification for the ban.
