Hong Kong Court to Rule on Activists Behind Banned Tiananmen Vigil

A Hong Kong court is expected to deliver its verdict on Friday in the national security trial of two prominent activists linked to the city's long-running annual commemorations of the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown.

Lee Cheuk-yan and Chow Hang-tung, both former leaders of the now-disbanded Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China, were brought to the court in separate prison vans to hear the decision. The organization had for three decades organized candlelight vigils that annually drew tens of thousands of participants to remember the victims of the crackdown.

The pair have pleaded not guilty to charges of inciting subversion. If convicted, they face a maximum sentence of ten years in prison. Three government-vetted judges are scheduled to announce the verdict at 10 a.m. local time.

This case is among the latest involving Hong Kong's once-vibrant pro-democracy movement, which has been largely dismantled under a security law imposed by Beijing. The vigil was banned in 2020 during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, just weeks before the security law was introduced to quell the massive anti-government protests of 2019.