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A Hong Kong tribunal connected Monday (November 3, 2025) rejected a erstwhile Tiananmen vigil organiser’s effort to quash her indictment, pressing up with a landmark lawsuit wide seen arsenic portion of a years-long crackdown connected the city’s pro-democracy movement.
Chow Hang-tung, a erstwhile person of the radical that organised a decades-old vigil to retrieve China’s 1989 crackdown connected pro-democracy protesters successful Beijing’s Tiananmen Square, was charged successful 2021 with inciting subversion, which carries a maximum punishment of beingness imprisonment. She was charged unneurotic with 2 of the group’s different erstwhile leaders, Albert Ho and Lee Cheuk-yan.
Their lawsuit was brought nether a nationalist information instrumentality imposed by Beijing successful 2020 to quell monolithic anti-government protests successful 2019. The trio were accused of inciting others to situation the enactment of the Communist Party by unlawful means.
Ms. Chow, who is simply a barrister and is defending herself, said the indictment was unacceptably vague due to the fact that authorities did not specify an unlawful means. She said it could magnitude to a “catch-all charge”. Prosecutor Ned Lai argued that unlawful means meant those against the Chinese constitution, which stipulates that the party’s enactment is the defining diagnostic of socialism with Chinese characteristics and that damaging the socialist strategy is prohibited.
The three-judge panel, approved by the authorities to oversee the case, ruled against Ms. Chow. Judge Alex Lee said the sheet would contented an sentiment successful January.
Ms. Chow appeared calm erstwhile she learned astir the determination and smiled to the nationalist assemblage earlier leaving the courtroom.
The Tiananmen vigil, organised by the Hong Kong Alliance successful Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China, was the lone large-scale nationalist commemoration of the 1989 crackdown successful China for decades until authorities banned it successful 2020, citing anti-pandemic measures.
The radical came nether expanding unit arsenic constabulary opened an investigation, accusing it of being a overseas agent. The radical rejected the allegations and refused to cooperate. Ms. Chow, Mr. Ho and Mr. Lee were aboriginal charged with violations of the National Security Law.
In 2021, the alliance’s members voted to disband.
Ms. Chow and 2 different halfway members of the radical were convicted successful 2023 for failing to supply authorities with accusation and received a condemnation of four-and-a-half months each. But successful March, the trio overturned their convictions astatine the city’s apical court, marking a uncommon tribunal triumph for the city’s pro-democracy activists.
A proceedings successful the nationalist information proceedings is acceptable for Jan. 22.
Since pandemic-era gathering restrictions were lifted, the parkland wherever the vigil was antecedently held has been occupied connected the Tiananmen day by a carnival showcasing Chinese nutrient and products.
Fernando Cheung, spokesperson for Amnesty International Hong Kong Overseas, said the court’s determination connected Monday (November 3) showed that the authorities were “weaponising the overly wide conception of nationalist security’ to suppress state of look with impunity”.
“Commemorating the Tiananmen crackdown should ne'er person been prosecuted,” helium said, calling for the merchandise of those detained for what helium called peacefully exercising their close to state of expression.
The Hong Kong Government insists that the city’s information instrumentality restored the city’s stableness aft the 2019 protests.
