Judges in the Subversion trial reject a Hong Kong activist’s proposal 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 sedition trial next year.

The High Court on Monday rejected Chow Hang-tung’s application after the prosecution urged the three presiding judges to “defer” the government’s decision that prohibiting witnesses from testifying in national security trials via video link would be in the country’s interest.

Chow, a lawyer by profession, will go on trial next year for allegedly inciting subversion as vice president of the now-disbanded Alliance for Patriotic Democratic Movements of China in Hong Kong.

The only ones were the candlelight vigils organized annually by the alliance large-scale public gathering on Chinese soil to commemorate the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown.

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

On Monday, Chow told the court she planned to defend her case by asking three exiled dissidents to testify from abroad.