{"id":2762,"date":"2026-08-20T23:07:40","date_gmt":"2026-08-20T23:07:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/topmovingpross.com\/?p=2762"},"modified":"2026-08-20T23:07:40","modified_gmt":"2026-08-20T23:07:40","slug":"hong-kong-court-to-deliver-verdict-for-2-prominent-former-tiananmen-vigil-organizers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/topmovingpross.com\/?p=2762","title":{"rendered":"Hong Kong court to deliver verdict for 2 prominent former Tiananmen vigil organizers"},"content":{"rendered":"
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HONG KONG (AP) \u2014 A Hong Kong<\/span> court is set to deliver a verdict Friday in a closely watched national security trial<\/span> of two prominent activists linked to the city\u2019s decades-long commemorations of the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown.<\/p>\n

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The verdict is among the latest involving Hong Kong\u2019s once-vibrant pro-democracy movement, which has largely been dismantled under a China-imposed security law.<\/p>\n

Lee Cheuk-yan and Chow Hang-tung were leaders of the now-disbanded Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China, which for three decades organized candlelight vigils that drew tens of thousands annually to remember the crackdown\u2019s victims. They pleaded not guilty<\/span> to inciting subversion and face up to 10 years in prison if convicted.<\/p>\n

Three government-vetted judges are expected to hand down the verdict at 10 a.m. local time.<\/p>\n

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The vigil was banned in 2020 during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, weeks before Beijing imposed the security law on Hong Kong to quell the 2019 massive anti-government protests.<\/p>\n

Observers say their trial symbolizes the erosion of freedom of expression in the former British colony, which returned to Chinese rule in 1997.<\/p>\n

Eric Lai, a senior fellow with the Georgetown Center for Asian Law, said the charge of inciting subversion was commonly used in mainland China to criminalize the acts of human rights lawyers, activists and intellectuals, including late Nobel laureate Liu Xiaobo<\/span>.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe can see to what extent the court in Hong Kong falls into the level of the party-led judiciary in the mainland through the criminal verdict,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

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During the trial<\/span>, prosecutors said the case was not political and focused on what they viewed as a call by the alliance to incite others to overthrow the leadership of China\u2019s ruling Communist Party through unlawful means, pointing to \u201cending one-party rule,\u201d one of the group\u2019s core demands.<\/p>\n

But Lee told the court that the call was not about ending the party\u2019s leadership but about moving toward democracy, letting the people decide who leads them, and that the Communist Party should not enforce \u201cdictatorship.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Chow, a barrister who defended herself, said<\/span> \u201cending one-party rule\u201d means ending a state where power is unrestricted. She criticized how the standard for determining right and wrong was turned upside down in this case.<\/p>\n

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