The High Court has formally scheduled its verdict for 21 August 2026 at 10:00 am in the landmark National Security Law (NSL) case HKSAR v. Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China, Lee Cheuk-yan, and Chow Hang-tung (Case No: HCCC 155/2022). The disbanded organisation and its former leaders are charged with “incitement to subversion of state power” under Articles 22 and 23 of the NSL. The verdict will be handed down by a panel of designated National Security judges: Justices Alex Lee Wan-tang, Johnny Chan Chung-heng, and Anna Lai Yuen-kee.
By the date of the verdict, Lee Cheuk-yan and Chow Hang-tung will have been remanded in custody for nearly 1,800 days (almost five years) since their initial charges and detention in September 2021. The prosecution centres on the Alliance’s decades-long peaceful advocacy, including the organisation of the annual Victoria Park candlelight vigils commemorating the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown and its core political platform calling for the end of one-party rule in China. If convicted, the defendants face maximum penalties of up to life imprisonment.