Activist Chow Hang-tung to pay HK$100K over failed attempt to challenge gov’t bid to ban ‘Glory to Hong Kong’
Hong Kong Free Press
A Hong Kong court has ordered detained activist Chow Hang-tung to cover the government’s legal costs totalling HK$100,000 in a case over whether she could be considered a “party” in the authorities’ then-ongoing legal proceedings to ban pro-democracy song Glory to Hong Kong.
Chow’s application for leave to appeal was denied at the High Court’s Court of Appeal by Chief Judge of the High Court Jeremy Poon and the Court of Appeal’s Vice-President Carlye Chu on Thursday. The claims put forward by Chow were “not reasonably arguable,” the judges ruled.
This marks the second rejection in the case. In December, her application for leave to appeal over the same matter was denied by judge Anthony Chan at the High Court’s Court of First Instance.
See also: Explainer: How, and why, the gov’t banned protest song ‘Glory to Hong Kong’
The legal saga stemmed from the Hong Kong government’s attempt to ban Glory to Hong Kong in June 2023. The authorities sought an injunction to prohibit the song, dubbed as the anthem of the 2019 anti-extradition protests, from being performed and disseminated with illegal intent.
On June 21, 2023, Chow’s lawyers notified the Secretary for Justice that she wanted to be an “intended defendant” to the injunction case. But the secretary rejected her request in a written reply a few days later.
Chow, who was a barrister before she was remanded into custody under the national security law in September 2021, later filed her arguments against the injunction application on July 4, 2023 and referred herself as an “opposing party.” But High Court judge Chan did not allow the detained activist’s counsel to appear in the injunction hearing.
Chow then sought a declaration in August suggesting that she is a party to the case. Chan rejected Chow’s declaration in November, after which Chow filed an application for leave to appeal the rejection. Chan also shot down that application.
Poon and Chu dismissing Chow’s latest application as “totally without merit” on Thursday, saying the activist was not one of the defendants named and sued by the secretary. She also did not apply to join the proceedings as a defendant.
Although Chow argued that the secretary had served a writ on her concerning the injunction on June 23, 2023, the judges ruled that the document was only served in the belief that Chow intended to contest the proceedings as a defendant.
Chow’s reliance on the writ in bringing herself as a “party” to the case was thus “misplaced,” Poon and Chu ruled.
The court also rejected Chow’s argument that there was a lack of opposition to the secretary’s injunction application. The judges said Chow did not apply to join or intervene despite the judge’s direction to do so.
“[T]here is no reasonable prospect in the applicant’s appeal and no other reason why it should be heard in the interests of justice,” a written judgement read.
Poon and Chu said the secretary’s cost was “summarily assessed,” and Chow was eventually asked to pay HK$100,000.
Chow was the former vice-chairperson of the defunct Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China. The group used to hold annual candlelight vigils in Victoria Park to mark the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown, which was estimated to have killed hundreds, perhaps thousands, when the People’s Liberation Army cracked down on pro-democracy protesters in Beijing.
The vigil was banned for the first time in 2020, and no official commemoration has been held after the alliance disbanded in September 2021 following the arrests and detention of its key leaders under the security law.
Chow is awaiting a national security trial alongside former alliance leaders Albert Ho and Lee Cheuk-yan. The three, together with the alliance, stand accused of inciting subversion. A date has not been fixed for the trial.
Beijing inserted national security legislation directly into Hong Kong’s mini-constitution in June 2020 following a year of pro-democracy protests and unrest. It criminalised subversion, secession, collusion with foreign forces and terrorist acts – broadly defined to include disruption to transport and other infrastructure. 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.
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