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

Three former leaders of the now-disbanded alliance behind Hong Kong’s annual Tiananmen Square vigil have been sentenced to up to seven years and three months in jail under the national security law for inciting subversion by calling for an end to “one-party dictatorship” in mainland China.
Three High Court judges on Friday also imposed a HK$1.5 million fine on the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China, bringing the high-profile trial at West Kowloon Court to a close.
The alliance, former chairman Lee Cheuk-yan and former vice-chairwoman Chow Hang-tung were earlier convicted after the judges found they had incited public hatred towards the party by likening Beijing’s 1989 crackdown on pro-democracy protesters to local authorities’ suppression of the 2019 anti-government protests.
Lee and Chow were sentenced to seven years and seven years and three months behind bars, respectively.

Former vice-chairman Albert Ho Chun-yan, who pleaded guilty before the trial began, was sentenced to five years and two months.
Set up after the 1989 crackdown, the alliance organised annual candlelight vigils in Hong Kong’s Victoria Park to commemorate the event and call for accountability and democratic reforms across the border.
The event had been the only large-scale commemoration of the crackdown held on Chinese soil.
Police prohibited the vigil for the first time in 2020 on public health grounds related to the Covid-19 pandemic. The 2021 event was banned for similar reasons before the alliance disbanded in September that year.
Inciting subversion carries a maximum sentence of 10 years’ imprisonment under Hong Kong’s national security law. A company or organisation convicted of an offence under the law can be fined an unlimited amount.