High Hong Kong court docket overturns convictions of three former organizers of Tiananmen vigils

Tang Ngok-kwan, heart, one among core members of the Hong Kong Alliance in Help of Patriotic Democratic Actions of China, and Medina Chow Lau Wah-chun, left, mom of Chow Cling-tung, additionally core member, depart the Court docket of Remaining Attraction in Hong Kong, Thursday, March 6, 2025.
| Photograph Credit score: AP

Hong Kong’s prime court docket on Thursday (March 6, 2025) overturned the convictions of three former organizers of an annual vigil in remembrance of the 1989 Tiananmen Sq. crackdown over their refusal to supply info to police, marking a uncommon victory for town’s pro-democracy activists.

Chow Cling-tung, Tang Ngok-kwan and Tsui Hon-kwong — core members of the Hong Kong Alliance in Help of Patriotic Democratic Actions of China — had been convicted in 2023 throughout Beijing’s crackdown on town’s pro-democracy motion. They obtained a sentence of 4 1/2 months every and have already served their phrases.

Additionally Learn | What occurred in Tiananmen Sq. in June 1989?

The alliance was lengthy recognized for organizing candlelight vigils within the metropolis on the anniversary of the Chinese language navy’s crushing of pro-democracy protests in Beijing in 1989. But it surely voted to disband in 2021 below the shadow of a sweeping nationwide safety legislation imposed by China.

Critics stated the shutdown and the case confirmed that town’s Western-style civil liberties had been shrinking regardless of guarantees they’d be stored intact when the previous British colony returned to Chinese language rule in 1997.

Earlier than the group dissolved, police had sought particulars about its operations and funds in reference to alleged hyperlinks to pro-democracy teams abroad, accusing it of being a international agent. However the group refused to cooperate, insisting it was not.

On Thursday, judges on the Hong Kong Court docket of Remaining Attraction unanimously dominated within the trio’s favor. Chief Justice Andrew Cheung introduced the choice in court docket.

The prosecution wanted to show that the alliance was a international agent, the judges wrote, including that the decrease courts “fell into error” after they primarily based their rulings on the police commissioner saying he had cheap grounds to imagine this was reality.

Of their enchantment, the appellants additionally took problem with essential particulars that had been redacted, together with the names of teams that had been alleged to have hyperlinks with the alliance.

The highest court docket’s judges dominated that by redacting the one potential evidential foundation for establishing that the alliance was a international agent, the prosecution disabled itself from proving its case.

“Non–disclosure of the redacted information in any occasion disadvantaged the appellants of a good trial in order that their convictions concerned a miscarriage of justice,” they wrote.

After the ruling, Tang advised reporters outdoors the court docket that he hoped the highest court docket’s ruling cleared the group’s title, and that sooner or later they may show that the 1989 motion was not a counter-revolutionary riot.

“Justice lives in individuals’s hearts. Whatever the final result, everybody is aware of the reality of their hearts,” he stated.

Throughout an earlier listening to on the prime court docket in January, Chow, who represented herself and ready the enchantment in jail, stated her case highlighted what a police state is.

“A police state is created by the complicity of the court docket in endorsing such abuses. This sort of complicity should cease now,” she stated.

For the reason that safety legislation was launched in 2020, a number of non-permanent abroad judges have give up the highest court docket, elevating questions over confidence within the metropolis’s judicial system. In 2024, Jonathan Sumption give up his place and stated the rule of legislation was profoundly compromised.

However Cheung in January stated the judges’ untimely departures didn’t imply the judiciary’s independence was weakening.

The annual vigil at Hong Kong’s Victoria Park was the one large-scale public commemoration of the June 4 crackdown on Chinese language soil for many years. 1000’s attended it yearly till authorities banned it in 2020, citing anti-pandemic measures.

After COVID-19 restrictions had been lifted, the park was occupied as an alternative by a carnival organized by pro-Beijing teams. Those that tried to commemorate the occasion close to the positioning had been detained.

Chow and two different former alliance leaders, Lee Cheuk-yan and Albert Ho, had been charged with subversion in a separate case below the safety legislation. They continue to be in custody, awaiting the start of their trial.

In a separate ruling on Thursday, judges on the prime court docket dismissed jailed pro-democracy activist Tam Tak-chi’s bid to overturn his sedition convictions in a landmark case introduced below a colonial-era legislation that was used to crush dissent.

Tam was the primary individual tried below the sedition legislation for the reason that 1997 handover and was discovered responsible of 11 fees in 2022, together with seven counts of “uttering seditious phrases.” The judges dominated that the prosecution was not required to determine that the phrases uttered by the appellant had been supposed to incite violence or public dysfunction.

The colonial-era legislation was repealed final 12 months after the federal government launched a brand new, home-grown safety legislation that it stated was crucial for stability. Critics fear the legislation will additional curtail freedoms.