Judges in the Subversion trial reject the Hong Kong activist's bid to have five people testify remotely

A Hong Kong court has rejected a detained activist’s request to allow three dissidents involved in the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests and two others to testify remotely in her subversion trial next year.

The Supreme Court on Monday rejected Chow Hang-tung’s application after the prosecutor urged the three presidents to adhere to a government decision that it would be in the country’s interest to ban witnesses via video link to give evidence in national security trials.

Chow, a lawyer by profession, will stand trial next year for inciting subversion in her capacity as vice chair of the now-dissolved Hong Kong Alliance in Support of China’s Patriotic Democratic Movements.

The only candlelight vigils organized by the alliance each year were the only ones large-scale public meeting on Chinese soil in memory of the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown.

The alliance, ex-chairman Lee Cheuk-yan and former vice-chairman Albert Ho Chun-yan will also be tried for the same offense, which is punishable by up to 10 years in prison under the national security law imposed by Beijing in June 2020. .

Chow told the court on Monday that she planned to make her case by asking three exiled dissidents to testify from abroad.