Thread by @XinqiSu

#DEVELOPNG Preliminary inquiry of #HKAlliance's "incitement to subversion" case has started this morning. Chow Hang-tung @zouxingtong told the court, "It's impossible to plead guilty. Pursuing democracy is not a crime. I plead not guilty." She is going to give evidence.

The prosecution submitted 58 statements from 39 witnesses, 136 pieces of documentary exhibits and a for now unclear number of video clips to the court as evidence. No witness will be called to court as a condition Chow agreed earlier in order to strike down reporting restriction.

History of June 4 crackdown in 1989 and over 3 decades of commemorations in Hong Kong comes back in vivid images in open court as Chow Hang-tung replays video footage submitted by the prosecution as evidence against the Alliance's alleged "incitement to subversion" offence.

So far the defense has played footage from the candlelight vigils in 2001, 2019, 2014 and 1997, which include clips of Tianamen Movement in 1989, military crackdown, protests and commemorations in HK, speeches by Alliance leader and Tianamen mothers.

The prosecution interrupted when the hosts of the 2014 vigil were reading out the names of the June 4 victims in the video. #NSL prosecutor Ivan Cheung said the court might intervene when this video playing reached "an inappropriate level".

When the presiding magistrate Veronica Heung asked how could it be inappropriate if those footages were part of prosecution's evidence. Prosecutor Cheung alleged Chow Hang-tung of "using the court as a platform for some promotional purposes"

Chow's lawyer Erik Shum refuted and said it was the defense's right to give evidence and play relevant footages, and the footages were meant to prove that "in every single part of the candlelight vigils, there was not a drop of incitement to violence".

Barrister Eric Shum also gave prosecutor Ivan Cheung a direct throw of punch saying "I have told you we will play some of the prosecution's footages. It's my choice. I do not need you to teach me how to do it."

So the court heard from the footages "if Hong Kong no longer has the alliance and the June 4 commemorations, Hong Kong has no One Country Two Systems" said by Alliance founder Szeto Wah, and "the massacre did not just finish in 1989" said by human rights lawyer Teng Biao.

In her evidence, Chow Hang-tung told the court that the authorities have been mixing up the concepts of "party" and "state" when accusing the Alliance to be an anti-China org. "The Alliance has been nurturing people who care about China," Chow said.

"But that affection was based on care for real people and concern for facts and truth, instead of an affection for an abstract concept of state or a political party whose hands are covered in blood. The so-called 'anti-China' allegation is actually 'anti-Party'," Chow said.

In the afternoon, Chow Hang-tung explained to the court the meaning of the Alliance's "five operational principles" and among them the slogan "end one-party dictatorship" upon which the prosecution pivot their case of "incitement to subversion".

“The five operational principles must be read as a whole instead of separately,” Chow told the court. “We want democracy for this country, so what’s the greatest obstacle? That’s the one-party dictatorship and the wicked logic of considering party and state as one.”

“An unsupervised political party can kill the innocent, deploy excessive force and prosecution, bury the truth and turn black into white, in order to monopolise the power that doesn't belong to it - that’s what happened in June 4 and what's been happening all the time,” Chow said

“To end one-party dictatorship is to limit the absolute power of a political party so it cannot do as it pleases and it must bear consequences for the crimes it committed,” Chow said. “Without ending one-party dictatorship, how can there be meaningful redress and accountability?”

“To end one-party dictatorship...is to end the violent principle of ‘political power grows out of the barrel of a gun’...our greatest weapon and power is to tell the truth and reasons clearly in order to dissolve the dictatorship’s deception and control over people,” Chow said.

“Totalitarian powers turn people into their own prison guard with indignity and fear,” Chow said. “To end one-party dictatorship needs everyone…to defend important truth, to provide alternatives, to speak freely, to safeguard core values..This is what I am doing in this court.”

Chow's evidence in chief took about 4 hours today and the preliminary inquiry is adjourned to next Thursday for the court and prosecution to study defense lawyers' submission that there is no prima facie case to be committed for trial.