Tiananmen vigil leaders jailed up to 7 years, as group is fined HK$1.5 million

Three former leaders of the disbanded Hong Kong alliance behind the annual Tiananmen Square vigil have been sentenced to up to seven years and three months in jail for inciting subversion, according to prosecutors. The Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China was fined HK$1.5 million by the High Court on Friday.

The alliance's chairman Lee Cheuk-yan and vice-chairwoman Chow Hang-tung were convicted of inciting public hatred by likening Beijing's 1989 crackdown on pro-democracy protesters to local authorities' suppression of the 2019 anti-government protests. Albert Ho Chun-yan, the alliance's vice-chairman, was sentenced to five years and two months after pleading guilty before the trial began.

The alliance, formed after the 1989 crackdown, organized annual candlelight vigils in Hong Kong's Victoria Park to commemorate the event and demand accountability and democratic reforms across the border. The vigil had been the only large-scale commemoration held on Chinese soil. Police banned the vigil in 2020 due to public health concerns related to the Covid-19 pandemic, and it was banned again in 2021 for similar reasons before the alliance disbanded in September of that year.

Inciting subversion under Hong Kong's national security law carries a maximum sentence of 10 years' imprisonment, and a company or organization convicted of an offence can be fined an unlimited amount.