HONG KONG – Twenty-four activists appeared in a Hong Kong court on Friday on charges related to organising the banned Tiananmen vigil on June 4, last year.
The Tiananmen vigil marks the anniversary of China’s military crackdown on pro-democracy protesters in and around Beijing’s Tiananmen Square in 1989.
Released from jail to attend the court hearing were media tycoon and staunch Beijing critic Jimmy Lai, 73, and prominent democracy activist Joshua Wong, 24. Five of the group, including Wong, indicated they planned to plead guilty to charges related to illegal assembly and their case was adjourned to April 30. The rest were expected to plead not guilty and their case was adjourned to June 11.
Though Hong Kong holds the largest vigil in the world every year, it was banned in 2020, as authorities stated COVID as a reason. The vigils have always been banned in mainland China.
However, thousands Hong Kong citizens defied the ban and took to the streets to stage candlelight rallies in the former British colony.
Outside the court, more than a dozen supporters shouted slogans and held up placards that read, “Against political suppression” and “Innocent to mourn June 4.”
Last year’s June 4 anniversary came nearly four weeks before Beijing imposed a national security law on Hong Kong that Western governments and rights groups have widely condemned as a tool to crush freedoms in the global financial hub.
Hong Kong and Chinese authorities reject that and say the legislation was necessary to restore stability after a year of sometimes violent anti-China and anti-government demonstrations.
China has never disclosed the full account of the 1989 violence. The death toll given by officials days later was about 300, most of them soldiers, but rights groups and witnesses say thousands of people may have died.