Hong Kong’s top court on Thursday overturned the conviction of three pro-democracy activists who had organised an annual vigil in remembrance of the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown.
Chow Hang Tung, Tang Ngok Kwan, and Tsui Hon Kwong were convicted and sentenced to four and a half months in prison in 2023 for failing to comply with the police demand for data under the city’s national security law. The trio had denied the allegations after Hong Kong authorities accused them of being “foreign agents”.
The trio – members of the disbanded Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China – were arrested during Beijing’s crackdown on the city’s pro-democracy movement.
The alliance was long known for organising candlelight vigils in the city on the anniversary of the Chinese military’s crushing of the 1989 pro-democracy protests in Beijing. But it voted to disband in 2021 under the shadow of a sweeping national security law imposed by China.
Police had sought details about the group’s operations and finances in connection with alleged links to pro-democracy groups overseas. But the group refused to cooperate, insisting it was not.
Hong Kong was one of the few Chinese territories which commemorated the event until China imposed a new, stringent national security law in the wake of the pro-democracy protests, punishing acts of subversion, terrorism and collusion with foreign forces.
Critics said the shutdown and the case showed that the former British colony’s Western-style civil liberties were shrinking despite promises they would be kept intact.
Judges at the Hong Kong Court of Final Appeal on Thursday unanimously ruled in the trio’s favour, adding that the lower courts “fell into error” in holding that it was sufficient merely that the police commissioner said he had reasonable grounds to believe the alliance was a foreign agent.
In a lower court trial, the appellants also took issue with crucial details that were redacted, including the names of groups that were alleged to have links with the alliance.
The judges ruled that by redacting the only potential evidential basis for establishing that the alliance was a foreign agent, the prosecution disabled itself from proving its case.
“Non-disclosure of the redacted facts in any event deprived the appellants of a fair trial,” they wrote. The trio have completed their prison terms under this case, however, Ms Chow is still behind bars awaiting a separate subversion case where she faces life in prison.
Mr Tang told reporters outside the court that he hoped the ruling proved that the alliance was not a foreign agent and that in the future they could prove that the 1989 movement was not a counter-revolutionary riot.
“Justice lives in people’s hearts. Regardless of the outcome, everyone knows the truth in their hearts,” he said. Ms Chow raised a victory sign as she was led away by corrections officers, while supporters clapped and congratulated her.
During an earlier hearing at the top court in January, Ms Chow, who represented herself, said her case highlighted what a police state is. “A police state is created by the complicity of the court in endorsing such abuses. This kind of complicity must stop now,” she said.
Since the security law was introduced in 2020, several non-permanent overseas judges have quit the top court, raising questions over confidence in the city’s judicial system. In 2024, Jonathan Sumption quit his position and said the rule of law was profoundly compromised.
But chief justice Andrew Cheung in January said the judges’ premature departures did not mean the judiciary’s independence was weakening.
The annual vigil at Hong Kong’s Victoria Park was the only large-scale public commemoration of the June 4 crackdown on Chinese soil for decades. Thousands attended it annually until authorities banned it in 2020, citing anti-pandemic measures.
After Covid-19 restrictions were lifted, the park was occupied instead by a carnival organised by pro-Beijing groups. Those who tried to commemorate the event near the site were detained.
Ms Chow and two other former alliance leaders, Lee Cheuk-yan and Albert Ho, were charged with subversion in a separate case under the security law.
In a separate ruling on Thursday, judges at the top court dismissed jailed pro-democracy activist Tam Tak-chi’s bid to overturn his sedition convictions in a landmark case brought under a colonial-era law that was used to crush dissent.
Tam Tak-chi was the first person tried under the sedition law since the 1997 handover and was found guilty of 11 charges in 2022, including seven counts of “uttering seditious words”.
The activist argued that prosecutors needed to prove he intended to incite violence. The city authorities last year revamped the offence so it explicitly states that people can be convicted of sedition even if no intent to incite violence.
Additional inputs from agencies
