Hong Kong Tiananmen vigil activists sentenced up to 7 years 3 months for inciting subversion

Three activists who once organized annual vigils to commemorate the 1989 Tiananmen crackdown have been sentenced up to seven years and three months in prison. Chow Hang-tung, Lee Cheuk-yan, and Albert Ho received their respective jail terms for inciting subversion under Beijing's national security law. Lee was given a seven-year sentence, Chow was sentenced to seven years and three months, while Ho, who pleaded guilty, received five years and two months.

The trio had led the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China, an activist group that held annual vigil events for the Tiananmen victims. The Alliance itself was fined HK$1.5 million, payable within three months. The Tiananmen crackdown took place on June 4, 1989, and is believed to have resulted in hundreds or even thousands of deaths.

The group held the mass candlelit vigils until 2020, when the event was banned due to pandemic restrictions, and again in 2021. The ruling against the activists was criticized by rights organizations and the United Nations, but supported by the local government. The incitement of subversion offence carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison.

Chow and Lee have been in detention for nearly four years, while Ho, who pleaded guilty, has been detained for three years and six months. The judges stated that all three activists had been "hostile towards the [Chinese Communist Party] and the Central Government under its leadership" throughout the case.