Three former organizers of Hong Kong’s annual vigil in remembrance of the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown on pro-
democracy protests yesterday lost their bid to overturn their conviction over their refusal to provide authorities with information on the group under a National Security Law.
Chow Hang-tung (鄒幸彤), Tang Ngok-kwan (鄧岳君) and Tsui Hon-kwong (徐漢光) were core members of the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China before it disbanded under the shadow of the Beijing-imposed law in 2021.
Photo: AP
Last year, they received a sentence of four-and-a-half months — widely seen as part of a crackdown on dissidents following massive pro-democracy protests in 2019.
The alliance was best known for organizing candlelight vigils in the territory on the anniversary of the Chinese military’s crushing of the 1989 protests in Beijing for decades.
Critics said its shutdown reflected that civil liberties were shrinking, despite promises they would be kept intact when the former British colony returned to Chinese rule in 1997.
Before the group dissolved, police had sought details about its operations and finances in connection with alleged links to democracy groups overseas, accusing it of being a foreign agent.
However, the group refused to cooperate, arguing police were arbitrarily labeling pro-democracy organizations as foreign agents.
Judge Anna Lai (黎婉?) at the Court of Appeal yesterday dismissed their appeal, saying she was satisfied that there was ample evidence to support the convictions.
In December last year, their lawyer argued in an appeal hearing that the trio were denied a fair trial because they had not been shown the full evidence that suggested the group was a foreign agent.
During previous legal proceedings at the lower court, some crucial details, including the names of groups that were alleged to have links with the alliance, were redacted.
The court ordered a partial redaction of some information after prosecutors argued that a full disclosure would jeopardize an ongoing probe into national security cases.
Under the security law’s implementation rules, the police chief can request a range of information from a foreign agent.
Chow and two other former alliance leaders, Lee Cheuk-yan (李卓人) and Albert Ho (何俊仁), were charged with subversion in a separate case under the sweeping law in 2021. It was still unclear when their trial would begin.
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