Hong Kong court sentences 3 Tiananmen vigil organizers to prison

FILE - Pro-democracy activists including from left Albert Ho, Lee Cheuk-yan and Chow Hang-tung shout slogans during a gathering to mourn those killed in the 1989 Tiananmen crackdown at Victoria Park in Causeway Bay, Hong Kong on June 4, 2020. Kin Cheung/AP hide caption toggle caption Kin Cheung/AP HONG KONG — Three Hong Kong activists who organized annual vigils in remembrance of China's 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown were sentenced Friday to about 5 to 7 years in prison in a case widely seen as a barometer of the city's eroding freedoms as Beijing clamps down on dissent. Lee Cheuk-yan, Chow Hang-tung and Albert Ho were convicted of inciting subversion earlier this year under a Beijing-imposed national security law. Lee received a 7-year prison term and Chow was sentenced to 7 years and 3 months. Both pleaded not guilty. Ho was given a lower sentence of 5 years and 2 months, partly because he pleaded guilty. The trio of defendants was charged in September 2021 and has been held in custody for years. Hong Kong once had a vibrant civil society marked by massive protests and a freewheeling press. But after a 2019 protest movement rocked the city, authorities reduced public choice in ...