Hong Kong court denies ex-Tiananmen vigil activist Chow Hang-tung’s bid to remove judge from national security trial

Hong Kong Free Press

Hong Kong court denies ex-Tiananmen vigil activist's bid to remove judge from national security trial

A Hong Kong court has denied a former Tiananmen vigil activist’s application to replace a judge presiding over a national security trial.

Chow Hang-tung. Photo: Candice Chau/HKFP.

The court ruled on Friday that Madam Justice Anna Lai, who has been handpicked to preside over national security cases, would remain on the bench in the upcoming subversion trial of detained rights activist Chow Hang-tung.

Chow had earlier applied for Lai’s recusal on the grounds that Lai’s access to materials kept from Chow’s defence team in a separate case meant Chow would not receive a fair trial.

Lai is on the panel of designated judges overseeing the trial of three members of the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China, which used to organise Hong Kong’s annual vigils to commemorate the 1989 Tiananmen crackdown.

Chow – along with former members Albert Ho and Lee Cheuk-yan, as well as the Alliance itself – has been charged with inciting subversion of state power under the Beijing-imposed national security law.

Chow argued last month that Lai’s access to police investigatory materials that were redacted and kept from Chow and her defence team in a case involving the Alliance’s refusal to hand over data to the police would result in prejudice against herself.

Court of Appeal in the High Court. File photo: Kyle Lam/HKFP.

Chow has been detained since her arrest under the national security law since September 2021, which sparked the Alliance to disband. The national security trial will not commence this year.

The Alliance for three decades organised public memorials for victims of the Tiananmen crackdown on June 4, 1989. It is estimated that hundreds, perhaps thousands, died when the People’s Liberation Army quashed a student-led pro-democracy movement in Beijing.

The vigil in Victoria Park has not taken place since Beijing imposed a security law in June 2020.

The legislation came into force in June 2020 following a year of pro-democracy protests and unrest, criminalising subversion, secession, collusion with foreign forces and terrorist acts.

The move gave police sweeping new powers and led to hundreds of arrests amid new legal precedents, while dozens of civil society groups disappeared. The authorities say it restored stability and peace to the city, rejecting criticism from trade partners, the UN and NGOs.