(Bloomberg) -- A Hong Kong appeal board endorsed a decision by the city’s police to ban a candlelight vigil for victims of the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown.
In a hearing on Saturday, the Appeal Board on Public Meetings and Processions upheld the police decision to prohibit a public meeting and procession on May 30, and the assembly on June 4, according to a statement by the Security Bureau. No one should participate or publicize the unauthorized gatherings as such moves could be illegal, according to the bureau.
The city’s police this week denied an application for a permit to hold a public gathering on June 4 in Victoria Park. Police cited coronavirus restrictions on gatherings larger than four people, while pro-democracy groups contend such measures are being used to stifle dissent.
For three decades, pro-democracy groups in Hong Kong had commemorated the crackdown, when Communist Party leaders sent the People’s Liberation Army into Tiananmen Square and surrounding streets to clear protesters. City authorities banned the vigil for the first time last year, also then citing coronavirus restrictions.
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