Thursday, December 9th, 2021
Trial of the Tiananmen Vigil
Hong Kong court convicts Jimmy Lai
Judges punish more than two dozen pro-democracy politicians and activists over a Tiananmen vigil in Hong Kong – one of the last to punish media entrepreneur Jimmy Lai. He had challenged the allegations in court with two fellow campaigners.
Imprisoned media entrepreneur Jimmy Lai and two other democracy activists have been convicted of attending a Tiananmen vigil in Hong Kong. A Hong Kong district court, along with former journalist Gwyneth Ho and lawyer Chow Hangtung, found Lai guilty of, among other things, inciting and attending an unauthorized meeting. The penalties are to be announced on Monday.
The three are the last of more than two dozen pro-democracy politicians and activists to be punished for last year’s vigil. The annual event commemorated the victims of the violent crackdown on democracy protests in Beijing in 1989. The authorities had banned the commemoration, which has been taking place for decades at the beginning of June, last year ostensibly because of the corona pandemic.
The 74-year-old Lai, who owns the now closed pro-democracy newspaper “Apple Daily”, was the only one to contest the judiciary’s allegations together with his two colleagues. They argued at the hearing that they lit the candles traditionally lit at the June 4th vigil only for themselves and did not “incite” others to participate in a prohibited rally. District Judge Amanda Woodcock dismissed these arguments as “frankly nonsensical”. The condemned had organized the vigil in an “act of defiance and protest against the police”.
Activists have been detained for months
Amnesty International described the verdict as the latest “attack on the right to freedom of expression and assembly” in Hong Kong. The authorities would have criminalized a “peaceful, socially distant vigil”.
The vigil took place shortly before the so-called National Security Act came into force. This law passed by Beijing has made numerous previously legal demands for more democracy and self-determination in the Chinese Special Administrative Region a criminal offense. Since then, numerous organizers and attendees of the vigil have been charged with alleged criminal offenses. A vigil museum was closed by the authorities.
Most recently, courts had sentenced 16 politicians and activists – including the prominent activist Joshua Wong – to prison terms of between six and ten months for participating in the vigil. Some of the sentences have been suspended. There was another vigil this year, but the authorities stopped it as far as possible.