He had participated in a manifestation in 2020. Two other proprietary activists were, like him, convicted of illegal gathering.
Le Monde with AFP
The Hong Kong Jimmy Lai press magnat and two other proprietary activists have been sentenced on Thursday, December 9, for participating in 2020 at a prohibited gathering to commemorate the repression of Tiananmen Square.
Jimmy Lai, 74, owner of the proprietary newspaper today closed Apple Daily, was convicted with illegal gathering alongside the former journalist Gwyneth Ho and the human rights lawyer Chow Hang- Tung. The sentences will be pronounced Monday.
The Hong Kong authorities have charged about twenty politicians and proprietary activists following a vigil organized in 2020 in tribute to the victims of the deadly repression in Beijing in 1989. Mr. Lai and his co-accused, Chow Hang-Tung and Gwyneth Ho, had pleaded not guilty.
In practice, these convictions make little difference, Mr. Lai, M me Chow and M me Ho are already behind the bars like dozens of other activists , and are subject to separate prosecutions under the strict National Security Act that Beijing imposed on Hong Kong following the protests of two years ago.
Memorials now forbidden
For more than three decades, every June 4, tens of thousands of people gathered in Victoria Park, to participate in these vigils in commemoration of the bloody repression of Tiananmen Square in China. These gatherings, during which slogans were changing in favor of democracy in China, had become one of the symbols of the political freedoms enjoyed by the semi-autonomous territory. This year, China has clearly indicated that it will no longer tolerate these commemorations of Tiananmen in Hong Kong or Macao.
A few months ago, sixteen politicians and activists, including Joshua Wong, the best-known face of Hong Kong protest, had been sentenced to six to ten months’ imprisonment for their participation, in 2020, at this vigil, and some have been swearing sentences.