Hong Kong court rejects Tiananmen vigil organiser’s bid to quash indictment

Hong Kong: A Hong Kong court on Monday rejected a former Tiananmen vigil organiser’s attempt to quash her indictment, pressing ahead with a landmark case widely seen as part of a years-long crackdown on the city’s pro-democracy movement.

Chow Hang-tung, a former leader of the group that organised a decades-old vigil to remember China’s 1989 crackdown on pro-democracy protesters in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square, was charged in 2021 with inciting subversion, which carries a maximum penalty of 10 years. She was charged together with two of the group’s other former leaders, Albert Ho and Lee Cheuk-yan.

Their case was brought under a national security law imposed by Beijing in 2020 to quell massive anti-government protests in 2019. The trio were accused of inciting others to challenge the leadership of the Communist Party by unlawful means.

Chow, who is a barrister and is defending herself, argued that the indictment was unacceptably broad and vague because authorities did not specify an unlawful means. She said it could amount to a “catch-all charge.”