Nat. security trial for ex-leaders of Hong Kong’s Tiananmen vigil group will not begin this year, judge says

Hong Kong Free Press

The national security trial of three former leaders of a now-disbanded Tiananmen vigil group will not begin this year, a Hong Kong judge has said, more than two years since the group was charged.

Chow Hang-tung, Albert Ho, and Lee Cheuk-yan, formerly of the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China, appeared on Wednesday in the High Court for a second case management hearing.

The trio, along with the alliance itself, were jointly charged in September 2021 under the Beijing-imposed national security law with inciting subversion of state power. Chow and Lee had been remanded in custody since then.

Judge Alex Lee, who earlier said the trial could begin in November, announced on Wednesday that it would not start this year as the judges who would adjudicate had not yet been decided, according to local media.

The court is set on June 24 to hear an application by Chow to remove Judge Anna Lai from the case. Chow earlier told the court that Lai had handled a separate case involving the Alliance’s refusal to hand over data to the police.

Chow Hang-tung CSD Tiananmen vigils Court of Final Appeal — Chow Hang-tung, former leader of the group that organised Hong Kong’s annual Tiananmen vigils, was escorted to Court of Final Appeal on June 8, 2023. File photo: Lea Mok/HKFP.

That had allowed Lai to preview police investigatory materials that were redacted and kept from Chow and her defence team, she said.

Barrister Erik Shum, representing Lee and Ho, said his clients were “neutral” about Chow’s bid to remove Lai as a presiding judge.

Expert witness

Judge Lee also said a third case management hearing would be needed to handle Chow’s application to have overseas expert witnesses testify via video link, but a date for that was not fixed.

The court heard that prosecutors had made a submission about newly-amended legislation that bans overseas witness testifying by video link in national security cases.

Lee said the application about overseas witnesses would be handled after the court has decided on the matter of the presiding judges.

The candlelight vigil in Victoria Park on June 4, 2019. File photo: Supplied.

The alliance for three decades organised an annual candlelight vigil to commemorate the victims of the Tiananmen crackdown, which occurred 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 been banned since Beijing imposed its security law in June 2020. The alliance voted a year later to disband after its former leaders were prosecuted.