The guilty verdicts delivered by a Hong Kong court against two organizers of the city’s annual vigil commemorating the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre have drawn condemnation from governments worldwide, which called the decisions politically motivated and further evidence of the diminishing freedom in the communist-controlled territory.
Lee Cheuk-yan, 69, and Chow Hang-tung, 41, face up to 10 years in prison after being convicted of incitement to subversion under a Beijing-imposed national security law.
Three Hong Kong government-picked judges delivered the verdict at the West Kowloon Law Courts Building on Aug. 21.
Chow and Lee, who have been in custody for nearly five years, were leaders of the now-dissolved Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China. For more than three decades, the group had organized the annual candlelight vigil in Victoria Park to remember a bloody clampdown in June 1989, when hundreds, possibly thousands, of unarmed pro-democracy protesters were killed by troops in Beijing. The alliance itself was also found guilty by the court….
Guilty Verdicts for 2 Hong Kong Organizers of Tiananmen Vigils Spark Global Condemnation
