Hong Kong’s top court overturns acquittal of human rights lawyer

Hong Kong’s top court on Thursday overturned the acquittal of activist and human rights lawyer Chow Hang Tung of inciting others to join an unauthorised vigil to remember victims of China’s 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown.
Chow won an appeal at the High Court in December 2022 against her conviction and sentence over the banned candlelight vigil in 2021 which commemorated victims of the pro-democracy crackdown in and around Tiananmen Square.
However, a panel of five judges including Chief Justice Andrew Cheung, permanent judges Roberto Ribeiro, Joseph Fok, and Johnson Lam, and non-permanent judge Anthony Gleeson unanimously ruled in favour of the prosecution on Thursday.
Chow will face a re-trial.
Despite the High Court overturning her conviction on the inciting unauthorised assembly charge, Chow was denied bail and has remained in jail as she faces a separate national security charge.
Chow has been detained since September 2021 at a maximum security women’s prison and continues to defy Beijing’s campaign to subjugate the city from behind bars.