New Delhi

A court in Hong Kong ruled on Wednesday that the police authorities’ decision to ban a Tiananmen vigil in 2021 was unlawful. As a result of the judgement, the conviction of democracy activist Chow Hang-tung was also overturned by the court. Chow was the organiser of the annual candlelight vigil to mark the anniversary of the Tiananmen Square protests and was arrested by the authorities.

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While the vigil took place every year to remember the 1989 crackdown by the Chinese government, the new Beijing-backed Hong Kong authorities did not take kindly to the demonstrations last year.

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In the judgement, High Court judge Judianna Barnes said that the decision to ban the vigil was not correct and said that the police did not "proactively and seriously consider ways to facilitate a public gathering” before ordering the disbanding and arrests of the people taking part in the programme.

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"Although the organisers expressed willingness to follow any reasonable demands by the police, the police only raised questions... and did not propose measures or conditions that could obviously be considered," the judge said in the judgement according to AFP.  

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The judge added that the government was not able to prove that the ban had any validity.

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While the judgement did result in charges getting dropped against Chow, he still remains in police custody due to the other national security charges brought against him in the past.

The major accusation against Chow was that he authored several anti-government articles and as a result, he was sentenced to prison in Hong Kong for 15 months.