Hong Kong sentences Tiananmen vigil leaders to up to seven years in national security case
Three leaders of the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China were sentenced to prison terms ranging from five to seven and a half years for organizing annual candlelight vigils commemorating the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown. The convictions, delivered under Beijing’s 2020 national security law, mark the final legal closure of a three-decade commemoration tradition that drew tens of thousands of participants annually. While authorities framed the sentencing as necessary to maintain stability and prevent subversion, international observers and human rights groups condemned the verdict as a severe erosion of civil liberties and a symbol of the decline of the rule of law in the Chinese territory.
