lørdag 11. mars 2023

Hong Kong court jails Tiananmen anniversary vigil organisers

A Hong Kong court has jailed three former members of a group that organised annual vigils to mark the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown in China. Chow Hang-tung, 38, a prominent Hong Kong pro-democracy activist and former vice-chairperson of the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements in China, was among those convicted by a magistrate’s court. The two others were Tang Ngok-kwan and Tsui Hon-kwong.

The three were jailed on Saturday for four-and-a-half months for not complying with a national security police request for information. Speaking before sentencing, Chow was defiant, criticising what she described as the “political” nature of the case and the decision of the court to withhold key facts.

“We will continue doing what we have always done, that is to fight falsehood with truth, indignity with dignity, secrecy with openness, madness with reason, division with solidarity. We will fight these injustices wherever we must, be it on the streets, in the courtroom or from a prison cell,” Chow said from the dock, in a speech that was interrupted several times by the magistrate, Peter Law. Law said “national security is cardinally important to public interests and the whole nation”.