- They are among 24 Hong Kong activists who were convicted because of their involvement in the gathering, which took place at Victoria Park on June 4 last year, during which thousands of people gathered to light candles and sing songs in the park, despite police warnings that they may be breaking the law.
- Lai, the founder of the disbanded Apple Daily tabloid, was already behind bars after being sentenced to a total of 14 months in prison in April on charges related to other demonstrations held in 2019. He was also convicted of two more charges in April, when he was accused of conspiring to collude with foreign powers and helping activists escape the city.
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- The gathering was again legally banned this year.
- “The Hong Kong government has once again flouted international law by convicting activists simply for their involvement in a peaceful, socially distanced vigil for those killed by Chinese troops on 4 June 1989,” said Kyle Ward, Amnesty International’s deputy secretary general, in a statement to CBS News. “These convictions merely underline the pattern of the Hong Kong authorities’ extreme efforts to exploit the law to press multiple trumped-up charges against prominent activists.”
- Ward added that prosecuting people who mourn and remember the victims of the Tiananmen Square protest is an “egregious attack on the rights to freedom of expression and assembly.”
- Most of the activists who have been charged over the banned vigil had pleaded guilty.