13 key HK activists charged over Tiananmen Square vigil event
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Media tycoon Jimmy Lai (centre), with supporters and other democracy activists, gathering in public before attending a mention at the West Kowloon Magistrates Court in Hong Kong yesterday. He was among 13 prominent activists charged with holding an unauthorised gathering to mark the Tiananmen Square crackdown.
PHOTO AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
HONG KONG • Thirteen prominent Hong Kong democracy activists appeared in court yesterday charged with holding an unauthorised gathering to mark the Tiananmen Square crackdown, the latest in a string of prosecutions against protest leaders.
Last month, tens of thousands in Hong Kong defied a ban on rallies to mark the June 4 anniversary of Beijing's 1989 crackdown on students pushing for democracy.
The annual vigil has been held in Hong Kong for the last three decades and usually attracts huge crowds. It has taken on particular significance in recent years as the semi-autonomous city chafes under Beijing's increasingly authoritarian rule.
The vigil was banned this year for the first time, with the authorities citing coronavirus prevention measures. At the time, local transmission had largely been halted.
But thousands turned up holding candles in their neighbourhoods and in Victoria Park, the traditional site of the vigil.
Police later arrested 13 leading activists who appeared at the Victoria Park vigil.
All appeared in court yesterday to be formally charged with "inciting" an unlawful assembly, which carries up to five years in jail. Among them were Jimmy Lai, the millionaire owner of the openly pro-democracy Apple newspaper, veteran activists such as Lee Cheuk Yan and Albert Ho as well as young campaigner Figo Chan.
When asked if he understood the charge, Lee invoked the hundreds who were killed by Chinese tanks and soldiers at Tiananmen Square. "This is political persecution," he said. "The real incitement is the massacre conducted by the Chinese Communist Party 31 years ago."
Some of those charged yesterday, and many other leading democracy figures, face separate prosecutions related to last year's huge and often violent pro-democracy protests.
Beijing has rejected calls to give Hong Kongers universal suffrage and portrayed the protests as an anti-China plot by foreigners.
Earlier this month, Beijing imposed a sweeping national security law in Hong Kong aimed at stamping out the protests once and for all. The law targets subversion, secession, terrorism and foreign collusion, with sentences including life in prison.
But its broad phrasing - such as a ban on encouraging hatred towards China's government - has sent fear rippling through a city used to being able to speak its mind.
Police have arrested people for possessing pro-independence or pro-autonomy material, libraries and schools have pulled books, political parties have disbanded and one prominent opposition politician has fled.
The law bypassed Hong Kong's legislature and its contents were kept secret until the moment it was enacted.
It empowers China's security apparatus to set up shop openly in Hong Kong for the first time, while Beijing has also claimed jurisdiction for some serious national security cases - ending the legal firewall between the mainland the city's independent judiciary.
Beijing has also announced global jurisdiction to pursue national security crimes committed by anyone outside of Hong Kong and China, including foreigners.
AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
