Hong Kong's Tiananmen activists sentenced to up to seven years in prison

Hong Kong Tiananmen activists receive prison terms of up to seven years

Before her 2022 arrest, Chow told the BBC she was "prepared to be arrested"

Three Hong Kong activists who organised annual vigils to remember Beijing's 1989 crackdown on Tiananmen Square protests have been sentenced to prison terms of as long as seven years.

Two of the defendants, Lee Cheuk-yan, 69, and Chow Hang-tung, 41, were found guilty last month of inciting others to subvert state power under the city’s contentious national security law.

A third defendant, Albert Ho, 74, had admitted guilt in January.

For years, Hong Kong was one of the few places in Chinese territory where people could gather to mark the Tiananmen Square crackdown, a subject that is highly sensitive and tightly censored in mainland China.

Hong Kong authorities banned these gatherings in 2020, citing Covid-19 policies, and they never returned. In the same year, the national security law, which criminalises a broader range of dissenting acts, formally took effect.

Officials say the law is needed to preserve stability, while critics say it has weakened Hong Kong’s autonomy and fostered a climate of fear.

Lee, Chow and Ho were charged in 2021. After their convictions, they faced up to 10 years in prison.

On Friday, the court sentenced Lee to seven years in prison, Chow to seven years and three months, and Ho, who pleaded guilty, to five years in prison.

According to a court summary in August, Lee and Chow had "incited other persons to organise, plan, commit or participate in acts by unlawful means with a view to subverting the state power", according to a summary on Friday.

Chow told the court in May that the law itself was on trial.

Speaking to the BBC before her arrest in 2022, Chow said she was "prepared to be arrested" and "willing to pay the price for fighting for democracy".

People in Hong Kong used to hold yearly vigils commemorating Beijing's 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown

The defendants were leaders of the now-disbanded Hong Kong Alliance, a group founded in May 1989 to support students taking part in pro-democracy rallies.

Weeks later, the Chinese Communist Party sent troops and tanks to crush pro-democracy protests in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square. Estimates of the death toll range from a few hundred to many thousands.

Over the next three decades, the Hong Kong Alliance urged authorities to accept responsibility for the crackdown, free dissidents and introduce democratic reform.

The group also organised yearly vigils marking the Tiananmen Square crackdown. Organisers said some of the events drew more than 100,000 people, although police gave lower turnout estimates.

On Friday, the court also imposed a HK$1.5m fine ($191,000; £142,000) on the Hong Kong Alliance.

"This sentencing is a triple tragedy: for the activists being unjustly punished; the survivors and victims of the Tiananmen crackdown itself; and the generations of Hongkongers denied the space to discuss one of the most consequential events in modern Chinese history," said Amnesty International's Deputy Regional Director Sarah Brooks.