Organizers of Hong Kong Vigils for Tiananmen Massacre Sentenced to Prison, tell me about this news in (https://www.nytimes.com/2026/09/11/world/asia/hong-kong-tiananman-vigil-prison-sentence.html)

On September 11, 2026, a Hong Kong court sentenced three leading pro-democracy activists from the now-disbanded Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China to prison terms ranging from five to over seven years for inciting subversion under the Beijing-imposed National Security Law.Key details of the ruling:

1. Sentences Handed Down: • Chow Hang-tung (former vice-chairwoman): Sentenced to 7 years and 3 months. She had pleaded not guilty and represented herself during the trial. • Lee Cheuk-yan (former chairman): Sentenced to 7 years. He had also pleaded not guilty. • Albert Ho Chun-yan (former vice-chairman): Sentenced to 5 years and 2 months, having entered a guilty plea earlier in the proceedings. • In addition, the court ordered the disbanded Alliance to pay a fine of 1.5 million Hong Kong dollars.
2. The Charges and Ruling: The three activists were charged in September 2021. Government-appointed national security judges ruled that the Alliance’s longstanding core slogan calling to “end one-party dictatorship” in China amounted to inciting the subversion and overthrow of the Chinese Communist Party’s constitutional leadership. The judges also found that the group sought to stir public hostility toward the central government by comparing the 1989 crackdown to authorities’ actions during the 2019 Hong Kong protests.
3. Background and Significance: For more than three decades, the Hong Kong Alliance organized an annual candlelight vigil on June 4 in Victoria Park to commemorate the victims of Beijing’s 1989 military crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrations in Tiananmen Square. It was long the only large-scale, open public memorial on Chinese soil. Authorities banned the vigils starting in 2020, citing coronavirus restrictions, and the gathering never resumed as the National Security Law came into effect.

The case is widely viewed by legal experts, human rights organizations, and international observers as a definitive marker of Beijing’s tightened control over Hong Kong, effectively criminalizing peaceful political dissent and bringing an end to the open commemorative culture that once defined the city’s distinct civil liberties.