Newspapers today September 11th,2026

Three prominent Hong Kong pro-democracy activists were sentenced to prison terms of up to seven years and three months on Friday for organizing annual vigils commemorating victims of China’s 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown.

The sentencing was delivered under Beijing’s national security law, in a case that has drawn international condemnation over shrinking freedoms in the Chinese territory.

Lee Cheuk-yan, 69, a former lawmaker, received seven years in prison. Chow Hang-tung was sentenced to seven years and three months. Both had pleaded not guilty to charges of inciting subversion.

A third defendantAlbert Ho, 74, was sentenced to five years and two months after pleading guilty, which carries a reduced penalty. All three have been in custody since they were charged five years ago. The maximum penalty was 10 years.

The three were leaders of the now-disbanded Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China.

For three decades the alliance organized candlelight vigils in Victoria Park to honor those killed on June 4, 1989, when Chinese troops cracked down on pro-democracy protesters in Beijing.

The vigils were the only large-scale public commemoration of Tiananmen held on Chinese soil.

The trial began in January before three government-appointed judges. Last month they ruled that the alliance’s longtime slogan calling to “end one-party dictatorship” in China amounted to unlawful incitement to overthrow the Communist Party. The judges said the defendants were not being tried over their political views.

During the trial, Lee told the court the alliance was not seeking to eliminate the Communist Party, but wanted the Chinese public to choose its government through free and fair elections.

The alliance itself was also convicted and fined 1.5 million Hong Kong dollars, about $190,000.

The Aug. 21 verdict was condemned by the United States, other Western governments, and the United Nations as further evidence of eroding free expression in Hong Kong.

“The Tiananmen vigils sought only to remember the past and honor the lives lost in that assault,” Assistant Secretary of State Riley Barnes said in a post on X.

Discussion of the 1989 Tiananmen crackdown remains heavily censored in mainland China.(NA)