Hong Kong's top court quashes convictions of pro-democracy Tiananmen group

6/3/2025 16:04

Hong Kong's top court unanimously overturned on Thursday the convictions of three former members of a pro-democracy group that organised an annual candlelight vigil to mark China's 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown, citing a miscarriage of justice.



The ruling is a rare victory for Hong Kong's pro-democracy movement in which scores of activists have been jailed or forced into exile, with many liberal and popular civil society groups shuttered.



In their judgment, the five judges of the Court of Final Appeal, led by Chief Justice Andrew Cheung, said government prosecutors had redacted key facts.



That had "deprived the appellants of a fair trial, so that their convictions involved a miscarriage of justice," they added.



The now disbanded Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements in China used to organise the annual candlelight vigil to commemorate those who died in the bloody crackdown in and around Beijing's Tiananmen Square in 1989.