Taiwan groups call for Hong Kong activists' release ahead of June 4th anniversary

Taipei, June 1 (CNA) Civil groups in Taiwan on Sunday called for the immediate release of two Hong Kong pro-democracy activists who are awaiting a verdict in a national security case related to their advocacy for commemorating the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre.

The call to release Lee Cheuk-yan (李卓人) and Chow Hang-tung (鄒幸彤) was made at a press event in Taipei's Ximending on Sunday evening, four days ahead of the 37th anniversary of the killings, also known as the June 4th Incident.

Lee and Chow were leaders of the now-defunct Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China (Hong Kong Alliance), which for decades organized an annual candlelight vigil in the city's Victoria Park that often drew tens of thousands of participants.

The two were charged with "inciting subversion of state power" under the Hong Kong National Security Law in September 2021 over the alliance's long-running efforts to commemorate the Tiananmen crackdown and advocate for democratic reforms in China.

They have been held in detention ever since and face up to 10 years in prison if convicted.

During the Sunday event, representatives of civil groups urged the Chinese and Hong Kong governments to "immediately and unconditionally" release Lee and Chow, drop all charges against them and stop enforcing laws they said violate human rights.

Those laws include the Hong Kong National Security Law, imposed by Beijing in June 2020 following months of mass pro-democracy protests in 2019, they said.

Ivan Choi (蔡智豪), a project manager at the New School for Democracy and a Hongkonger based in Taiwan, said Lee and Chow were being put on trial simply for peacefully commemorating the June 4th Incident, demonstrating how freedom of assembly and speech in Hong Kong had been undermined.

Amnesty International Taiwan Deputy Secretary-General Chang Chih (張弛) said the cases of Lee and Chow showed that Hong Kong's civic space had shrunk, gradually turning the city into a society where people could no longer speak the truth.

According to a May 19 report by Hong Kong newspaper Sing Tao Daily, closing submissions in Lee and Chow's case were completed that day, with a verdict expected in mid-to-late July.