National security conviction shows ‘pursuing democracy is a crime,’ Tiananmen vigil activist says in mitigation hearing
An activist who once organised annual vigils to commemorate the Tiananmen crackdown has said that a Hong Kong court’s decision to convict her under national security legislation amounts to saying that “pursuing democracy is a crime.” Chow Hang-tung was convicted last week, alongside Lee Cheuk-yan and Albert Ho, of inciting subversion under a Beijing-imposed national […]
Chow Hang-tung, a former leader of the now-defunct Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China, has been convicted under Hong Kong's national security legislation for inciting subversion. The 206-page judgment, which convicted Chow, Lee Cheuk-yan, and Albert Ho, essentially states that "pursuing democracy is a crime," according to Chow herself.
She was not permitted to deliver the entirety of her mitigation statement during a mitigation hearing at the West Kowloon Law Courts Building, where she is representing herself. Chow argued that anyone who advocates for an end to one-party rule in mainland China – the core of the Alliance's activism – "has nowhere left to stand" under the court's ruling.
Barrister Erik Shum, representing Lee and Ho, requested a sentence in the lower band, citing the activists' lack of premeditation. However, the public gallery erupted in laughter when Shum suggested that the case had helped spread the Alliance's message globally.
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