appConfigEntityId

bodyType

customContents

entityId

entityUuid

isVideo

articlePageQuery

article

articleSchemaContent

content

hooksArticlePageAdvertisementConfigArticle

hooksArticlePageFloatingButtonConfigArticle

appConfig

filter

json

liveArticle

Fiona Chow

Judges at Hong Kong’s top court have questioned the grounds for convicting three core members of a now-disbanded alliance behind the city’s annual Tiananmen Square vigil for failing to help with a police investigation.
The bench of five judges at the Court of Final Appeal heard on Wednesday that while the convictions stemmed from the police commissioner’s “reasonable belief” the group was a “foreign agent”, the justification for holding that view was not disclosed in the original trial.
Under the implementation rules of the national security law, the police chief can request a range of information from a suspected foreign agent or one with links to Taiwan.
The trio from the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China have asked the city’s top court to overturn their convictions.
Former vice-chairwoman Chow Hang-tung and ex-standing committee members Tsui Hon-kwong and Tang Ngok-kwan were sentenced to 4½ months’ jail in 2023 after they rejected a police request for details about group members, donors, financial reports and activities.
They have argued their refusal did not violate the national security law, imposed by Beijing in 2020.
The implementation rules lay out the powers conferred upon law enforcement officers to protect national security. The rules stipulate a foreign agent issued with a notice from the police commissioner must provide the requested information.
During a lower appeal court hearing, the alliance members argued police never provided evidence to prove the group was “in fact” a foreign agent. The relevant material was also shielded from the defendants during the trial as the prosecution was given “public interest immunity” by the presiding magistrate to not disclose the evidence.

On Wednesday, Senior Counsel Robert Pang Yiu-hung, acting for Tsui and Tang, told the top court that his clients and Chow faced a situation similar to being accused of rape but denied information about the accuser.
He referred to Franz Kafka’s The Trial, in which the protagonist is suddenly and inexplicably arrested and given little information with which to defend himself.
“To this day and age, this kind of farce has [still] been occurring,” Pang said.
Chow, a barrister by profession, told the judges she had provided evidence during the original trial to prove the alliance was not a foreign agent.
The judges, including Chief Justice Andrew Cheung Kui-nung, also heard the submission from the Department of Justice, and grilled Assistant Director of Public Prosecutions Ivan Cheung Cheuk-kan over the definition of foreign agent.
Ivan Cheung argued the police commissioner would be justified in issuing a notice if he “reasonably believed” the entity was in fact a foreign agent.
Even if the defendants wanted to challenge the legality of the notice and produced evidence to prove they were not a foreign agent during trial, they could only launch a judicial review against the police commissioner’s decision, he said.
But the judges questioned his reasoning, with Mr Justice Roberto Ribeiro saying: “Is that a rather shocking suggestion for the defendants to defend themselves? Why do they [first] have to go to jail? Why can’t they just say [the prosecution] failed to prove [its] case?”
Mr Justice Johnson Lam Man-hon asked how the prosecution could secure a conviction based on what the commissioner “reasonably believed” if the evidence had suggested otherwise.
Mr Justice Joseph Paul Fok also noted the implementation rule involved in the case did not include wording to indicate the commissioner’s reasonable belief over suspicious activities would suffice to warrant a notice.
Judge Ribeiro added that he found it hard to determine what constituted the commissioner’s reasonable belief when the prosecution had redacted key evidence in the trial.
The bench reserved its judgment and will hand down its decision in due course.


Barristers dismiss calls for solicitors to gain senior counsel status in Hong Kong

Murder trial of slain Hong Kong socialite Abby Choi’s former relatives to begin

3 Jellycat, Labubu plushie thieves jailed for up to 2 years and 2 months

Hong Kong IT analyst charged with murdering wife at their flat

Hong Kong courts

Hong Kong’s top court questions grounds for convicting June 4 alliance trio

Former alliance standing committee member Tang Ngok-kwan at the Court of Final Appeal. Photo: Nora Tam

Chow Hang-tung (yellow mask), of the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China, attends a press conference at the alliance’s office at the Ngai Wong Commercial Building in Mong Kok in 2021. Photo: Sam Tsang

US charges former Chinese democracy advocate with being illegal agent for Beijing

A photograph of Yuanjun Tang, a former Chinese dissident and naturalised US citizen who was arrested on charges of acting as an unregistered agent for Beijing and for lying to the FBI. Photo: US Department of Justice, SCMP edit

2 Hong Kong Tiananmen vigil activists say they were denied early release for being ‘unremorseful’

Tsui Hon-kwong (left) and Tang Ngok-kwan say they were denied early release for being “unremorseful”. Photo: Dickson Lee

Crowds raise their candles at the 30th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square crackdown in 1989. Photo: Robert Ng

Washington uses Tiananmen Square commemorations to invoke current human rights issues

Former House speaker Nancy Pelosi, Democrat of California, joins member of the House select committee on China to commemorate the 35th anniversary of the 1989 crackdown on pro-democracy protests in Tiananmen Square on Tuesday. Photo: AP 

Former House speaker Kevin McCarthy making his comments at the select committee’s Tiananmen Square commemoration. Photo: Bochen Han 

Fengsuo Zhou, a Tiananmen student leader and director of Human Rights in China, shows a pro-democracy T-shirt worn at Tiananmen Square in 1989, during a Congressional-Executive Commission on China hearing on Tuesday. Photo: AFP 

Remembering the Tiananmen crackdown: what happened to Hong Kong’s June 4 vigil?

The June 4 vigil drew an estimated 180,000 attendees in 2019, according to organisers. Photo: Robert Ng

Police were deployed in Causeway Bay as part of efforts to prevent people from gathering for the vigil in 2021. Photo: Sam Tsang

Candles are displayed to observe the anniversary of the Tiananmen crackdown on the windows of the US Consulate’s building in Central. Photo: Eugene Lee

News

Hong Kong

Law and Crime

Court of Final Appeal judges question how group can be defined as ‘foreign agent’ and denied evidence substantiating that allegation when mounting defence


Court of Final Appeal judges question how group can be defined as ‘foreign agent’ and denied evidence substantiating that allegation when mounting defence.


Hong Kong national security law (NSL)

Hong Kong politics

Tiananmen Square crackdown

Taiwan

Hong Kong’s top court questions grounds for convicting June 4 alliance trio

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Court of Final Appeal judges question how group can be defined as ‘foreign agent’ and denied evidence substantiating that allegation when mounting defence

Court of Final Appeal judges question how group can be defined as ‘foreign agent’ and denied evidence substantiating that allegation when mounting defence