Responding to the sentencing of activists who organized Tiananmen vigils in Hong Kong, Amnesty International’s Deputy Regional Director Sarah Brooks said:
“During most of the 30 years that Hongkongers commemorated the Tiananmen crackdown with an annual candlelight vigil, it would have been unthinkable that the organizers of the event could be jailed for their peaceful activism. But today’s sentencing illustrates just how much Hong Kong has been transformed in the name of ‘national security’.
“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.
“The persecution of the Tiananmen activists exposes the profound fear of dissenting voices that defines Hong Kong’s ‘national security’ regime. But you do not strengthen national security by imprisoning people for peacefully remembering the dead.
“The authorities may believe that punishing prominent figures will deter others, but history shows that demands for truth and accountability do not disappear simply because they are criminalized.
“Today’s sentence is an insult to the victims’ memory and an affront to history. The Hong Kong Alliance activists have committed no internationally recognized crime and should be immediately and unconditionally released. Their right to appeal against these unjust jail sentences must be protected.”
Background
Hong Kong’s High Court today sentenced lawyer Chow Hang-tung to seven years and three months in prison and her fellow Tiananmen activist Lee Cheuk-yan to seven years in prison for “inciting subversion of state power” under the city’s National Security Law. Albert Ho Chun-yan, who previously pleaded guilty to the same charge, was sentenced to five years and two months.
Chow and Lee were among seven members of the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patrio
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