The annual memorial event was once legal in China-ruled Hong Kong, and celebrated as a symbol of the relative freedom there. But it was stamped out in the aftermath of the COVID pandemic using a new national security law imposed from Beijing.
Police guarded the West Kowloon Magistrates' Court on Thursday amid considerable public and press interest in the case. Lee Cheuk-yan, 68, Albert Ho, 74, and Chow Hang-tung, 40, are three former leaders of the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China.
