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The prominent activist was jailed for 15 months in a second conviction for banned vigils in Tiananmen Square.
A prominent Hong Kong activist has been sentenced to 15 months in prison for pushing for a banned vigil to remember those killed in the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown in Beijing.
Chow Hang-tung, the now-disbanded Hong Kong Alliance Vice President for the Chinese National Democratic Movement, was sentenced to life in prison in West Kowloon Magistrates’ Court on Tuesday.
There is already a 36-year-old lawyer serve He was sentenced to 12 months in prison for participating in and promoting an unauthorized assembly for his role in the 2020 surveillance.
Police have banned June 4 surveillance, usually the annual events of the last two years, citing the pandemic.
But after mass protests for democracy in 2019, many activists saw the ban as an attempt to close demonstrations of defiance of Beijing. Authorities denied that was the reason.
Despite the ban, thousands of candles were lit in the city in 2020, and smaller crowds did the same in 2021.
At Chow’s trial, prosecutors said the activist encouraged others to attend the funeral home through his Facebook account and articles published in the Ming Pao newspaper.
Chow, who represented himself, pleaded not guilty to the charges, saying he wanted to “encourage others not to forget June 4” and not to rally.
In sentencing, Magistrate Amy Chan said the assembly posed a “risk to public health” and that Chow’s articles were to encourage others to oppose a police ban.
Chan said the activist had “decided to attract attention and publish it by calling on the public to gather.”
Chan said the five-month sentence announced on Tuesday will last at the same time, meaning Chow will serve 10 months in addition to his current sentence.
‘Tyranny is stingy’
The activist was charged with arson during his trial.
He used his relief on Tuesday to read the memoirs of the families of the dead in Tiananmen. This sparked a Chan outfit, followed by applause from some of the gallery. The magistrate then ordered the Ertzaintza to identify those who applauded.
Chow also overturned the court ruling on Tuesday and said authorities were criminalizing the speech.
“The public space for discussion on June 4 can be predicted to be completely gone,” Chow said in tears after the verdict. “Tyranny is greed. Red lines will spread.”
Chow accuses Beijing of promoting subversion under a comprehensive national security law in Hong Kong in 2020.
His group, the Alliance for Patriotic Democratic Movements in China, dissolved in the middle of that research, Who was accused by police of being an “agent of foreign forces”, which the group denied.
Hong Kong, a former British colony that returned to power in China in 1997, promises to be the world’s largest June 4 vigilante.
But memories are getting harder and harder. Last month, territorial universities removed monuments in Tiananmen, among other places “Shame Column” At the University of Hong Kong and “Goddess of Democracy” At the University of China.
A June 4 Museum Police investigated the investigation into the Alliance and shut it down, and its online version cannot be accessed in Hong Kong.
China has never fully reported the 1989 crackdown. The death toll from officials later in the day was about 300, most of them soldiers, but rights groups and witnesses say there could be thousands of dead.
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