Chow Hang-tung, a Hong Kong activist and lawyer, is facing a potential life prison sentence for speaking up for human rights and democracy in Hong Kong.

Chow Hang-tung is a former leader of the Hong Kong Alliance, which disbanded after authorities used the annual Tiananmen candlelight vigil it had organised for 30 years as evidence of the group “endangering national security”.

Along with other members of the group, Chow was charged with “inciting subversion” under Hong Kong’s National Security Law.

Today marks five years since Beijing imposed the National Security Law in Hong Kong. Our latest research has found at least 85% of the concluded cases were prosecuting free expressions without evidence of violence; 89% of people charged were denied bail—spending an average of 11 months in pre-trial detention..

The longest recorded pre-trial detention case under this repressive law involves Chow Hang-tung. She has been detained for nearly four years, simply for holding a space for dissent and preserving memory of those who paid with their lives in the Tiananmen crackdown.

Despite her imprisonment, Chow has continued to use her legal knowledge to defend people’s rights, most recently challenging Hong Kong prison’s requirement for female inmates to wear long trousers year round, including the hottest days of summer. She has suffered retaliation for such advocacy, including repeated periods of solitary confinement.

Chow Hang-tung is an ordinary person who risked everything fighting for human rights and preserving the memory of a brutal government suppression. Now, she needs us to stand with her. Show your solidarity with a message today! Or if you’d like to personalise your solidarity message, please send it to: solidaritymessage@amnesty.org.uk

Your words of support will remind her, and the Hong Kong authorities, that she is not forgotten. Every message you send is a direct act of resistance.