A Hong Kong court overturned the conviction of a prominent local democracy activist for her role in a banned Tiananmen memorial last year, in a rare victory for the city’s beleaguered opposition.
(Bloomberg) — A Hong Kong court overturned the conviction of a prominent local democracy activist for her role in a banned Tiananmen memorial last year, in a rare victory for the city’s beleaguered opposition.
Chow Hang Tung was cleared by the High Court on Wednesday of charges of inciting others to take part in an unauthorized assembly in June 2021 to commemorate China’s 1989 crackdown on demonstrators in Tiananmen Square. Chow, who helped lead a now-disbanded group that organized the annual vigil, had been convicted and sentenced to 10 months jail by a lower court in January.
The government could yet appeal the decision and Chow will likely remain in jail as she battles more serious national security charges over her ties to the vigil organizer, the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China. Still, the ruling represents a rare setback to government efforts to restrict public protests ostensibly protected by the former British colony’s charter.
Judge Judianna Barnes ruled that the prosecution failed to demonstrate the legal basis for banning the 2021 event. As a result, “it is not an offense for the appellant to appeal to others to come to Victoria Park to meet,” Barnes wrote.
The annual Tiananmen commemoration in Victoria Park had attracted tens of thousands of participants in a symbolic demonstration of continued dissent in Hong Kong despite the city’s return to Chinese rule in 1997. Police have banned the vigil since 2020 on the grounds that it could contribute to the spread of Covid-19.
Chow had previously received a 12-month sentence for her role in the same banned vigil in 2020, alongside media mogul Jimmy Lai and former journalist Gwyneth Ho. She also faces charges of inciting subversion under the city’s Beijing-imposed national security law, which carries sentences as long as life in prison.
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