Hong Kong activist Chow Hang-tung jailed for ‘provoking’ second Tiananmen

HONG KONG: Jailed democracy activist Chow Hang-tung accused Hong Kong courts on Tuesday of criminalizing speech and helping authorities erode Tiananmen’s actions as he was asked for a second time inciting people to celebrate the deadly incident. was convicted for.
Chow, a 36-year-old lawyer who has represented himself in several court hearings, often with fierce condemnation from the dock, is a former leader of the Hong Kong Alliance.
The now-disbanded group held the city’s massive annual candlelight event to mourn those killed in Beijing on June 4, 1989, when China sent troops to crush its opposition to democracy.
Hong Kong police banned the last two checkpoints, citing coronavirus and security fears, and courts have already jailed several activists who defied that ban in 2020, including Chow.
Chow was also arrested in two pieces on the morning of June 4 last year, in which he called on residents to light candles and mark the anniversary of the action.
On Tuesday, a court sentenced him to 15 months in prison, ruling that his articles amounted to inciting others to defy a police ban.
Chan told the court, “This ruling sends the message that lighting a candle is guilty, words are guilty.”
“The only way to defend free speech is to continue to express,” she said.
“The real crime is to cover up the killers with laws and remove the victims in the name of the state.”
Hong Kong was previously the only place in China where mass commemorations of Tiananmen were tolerated, but Beijing is reshaping the city in its authoritarian image after huge and sometimes violent democracy protests in 2019.
Chow has proven to be an outspoken defendant throughout his prosecution.
She used her shaman to read the memoirs of the families of those killed in Tiananmen on Tuesday.
This sparked a dressing up from Magistrate Amy Chan, followed by applause from some in the public gallery. Chan then ordered the police to extract the identification numbers of those who had applauded.
Chan ruled, “The law never permits anyone to exercise their liberty by unlawful means.”
“She (Chow) was determined to attract attention and publish for the purpose of calling the public to gather,” she said.
During sentencing, Magistrate Chan said that Chow was “self-righteous”, showed no remorse and used the courtroom to broadcast his political views.
Chou was already serving a 12-month sentence for a Tiananmen-related conviction, but will now face a total of 22 months in prison under the court’s new count.
He has also been charged with national security offenses that lead to life in prison.
Hong Kong Alliance leaders, including Chow, are among dozens of activists prosecuted under a national security law that has made much of the dissent a crime.
A museum run by the group has been closed, while several statues in memory of June 4 have been removed from university campuses in recent weeks.
An official campaign has also been launched to cleanse the city of “anti-China” elements and those deemed anti-national.
School and university courses are being rewritten to promote greater patriotism towards China, while important media outlets have been raided and closed by police.
In mainland China, censors have long scrutinized what happened online and in the real world at Tiananmen Square.