A rare victory for a Hongbong's Prodesmocratic Movement in Court

The Hong Kong Supreme Court unanimously canceled the verdicts against three former members of the Prodesumocratic group on Thursday, which organized an annual vigil with candles in memory of the choice of protests in China's Terg Square in 1989, citing a dishonest trial.

The verdict is a rare victory for the Hongbong Prodeumocratic Movement in which dozens of activists are closed or forced to exile, while many liberal and popular civil society groups are closed.

In the verdict of five judges, led by Supreme Judge Andrew Cheung, they wrote that the Attorney Generals had redesigned the key facts.

This was « deprived of the regrets of the fair trial, so their condemnations included injustice, » they added.

The now dissolved Hong Kong Union for the support of the patriotic democratic movements in China has organized an annual vigil with candles in memory of those who died in the bloody action of the government on and around the 1989 Peking Square.

Former Cow Hang Tung Vice President, 40 and the other two former members of the Tang Ngok-Kwan and Tsui Hon-Kwong Executive Board were sentenced to 4 and a half months in prison in March 2023.

They were found guilty because they did not satisfy the request of the National Security Police for information on members, donors and funding finances.

The group was declared a « foreign agent » after being accused of receiving $ 20,000 from the unidentified organization.

But some key details of the case, such as the identity of foreign organizations and individuals who were allegedly connected to the group, were redigated, which caused criticism of judges.

By reducing the only potential evidentiary basis for determining such facts, the prosecution only prevented itself from proven its thesis, the judges wrote.

The National Security Act that imposed Beijing allows the police chief to seek information that is believed to be necessary for the prevention and investigation of criminal offenses.

However, during the Chow hearing, which was represented by herself, she said that the claim was that the Alliance was difficult for a foreign agent to prove because it was untrue.

« Deer cannot become a horse just because someone believes it is, » she added.

Chow invited the courts to end their complicity at the Police Abuse of Power.

« The police state was created by the court of court in granting such abuse, » she said. « This type of complicity must stop now. »

In custody of September 2021, Chow has also been accused of encouraging subversion, along with two former federation leaders, Albert Hoom and Lee Cheuk-yan.