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Hong Kong Uses Archival Speeches in National Security Trial of Tiananmen Vigil Leaders

Prosecutors describe the proceedings as a law-enforcement case focused on alleged incitement to subversion.

Overview

  • The West Kowloon Court heard decades-old recordings, including a 1996 speech by Lee Cheuk-yan and clips from 2020–2021, as prosecutors presented evidence.
  • Prosecutors told the court the case is not a political trial and argued that repeated calls to "end one-party rule" threaten the constitutional order.
  • Lee Cheuk-yan, 68, and Chow Hang-tung, 41, pleaded not guilty to incitement to subversion, an offense punishable by up to 10 years in prison.
  • Both defendants have been held since 2021 as a designated three-judge panel, sitting without a jury, rejected Chow’s proposed expert witness, Ho Ming-sho.
  • A third defendant, Albert Ho, 74, pleaded guilty last week and was excused from the 75-day trial, while Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch condemned the case as an attempt to rewrite history.