Closing arguments concluded Tuesday in the national-security trial of Hong Kong activists accused of inciting subversion through the group that organised the city's annual Tiananmen vigils, with a three-judge panel saying it hoped to deliver a verdict in "mid or late July." Chow Hang-tung, a former leader of the now-defunct Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China, urged the court to safeguard the "dignity and bottom line of the law" and warned judges not to become "accomplices" in an alleged crackdown on free speech, Hong Kong Free Press reported.
Chow is representing herself in the case, in which she is charged alongside the Alliance and Lee Cheuk-yan, another former leader, under the Beijing-imposed national security law. The offence carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison. Prosecutors accuse the Alliance of inciting others to topple the ruling Chinese Communist Party through its calls to "end one-party rule," a tenet of the group since its founding in 1989 after the Tiananmen crackdown.
Chow said Tuesday the crux of the case was whether the law protects the "perpetual rule" of the party or the rights of people to advocate democracy, telling the court in Cantonese that ending one-party rule meant ending a status quo in which those in power are not bound by law. Prosecutors had said the calls breached China's constitution after a 2018 amendment making the party's leadership the "defining feature" of the socialist system. Chow countered that the leadership is "symbolic" because the text does not demarcate the party's power, drawing an analogy to the UK's constitutional monarchy under King Charles III, Hong Kong Free Press reported. A lawyer told the court the day before it must not "pay lip service" to human rights.
