Hong Kong Convicts Activists in National Security Trial

Two Hong Kong pro-democracy activists, Lee Cheuk-yan, 69, and Chow Hang-tung, 41, have been convicted of inciting subversion under the city's national security law. They were found guilty of inciting others to subvert state power for organising candlelight vigils to mark Beijing's 1989 Tiananmen crackdown. The pair face a maximum prison term of 10 years and are expected to be sentenced at a later date.

The national security law, imposed on Hong Kong in 2020, has been widely criticized for deteriorating freedom of expression in the city. The law makes illegal a wider range of dissenting acts, and public commemoration of the Tiananmen crackdown has been effectively banned since its imposition. Lee and Chow were leaders of the now-defunct Hong Kong Alliance, which organised vigils in Victoria Park to commemorate the crackdown.

Prosecutors argued that the defendants endangered national security in the name of human rights. Chow, who represented herself, told the court that the law itself was on trial. A third defendant, 74-year-old former lawmaker Albert Ho, pleaded guilty in January, according to BBC World.

Brief written by urgent.news from Tempo.co English, DW News, DW English (Top Stories), BBC World, Hong Kong Free Press — 5 reports on this story. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.