Two Hong Kong activists who organised annual vigils marking China’s deadly Tiananmen crackdown in 1989 were found guilty of “incitement to subversion”, in a case widely criticised as exemplifying the erosion of freedom of expression in the Chinese city.

Lee Cheuk-yan, 69, and Chow Hang-tung, 41 “incited other persons to organise, plan, commit or participate in acts by unlawful means with a view to subverting the state power”, a press summary handed out to reporters said.

The defendants face a maximum penalty of 10 years in jail. Sentencing is expected on a later date.

Lee and Chow’s trial began in January and took place over 24 days. A third defendant, 74-year-old former lawmaker Albert Ho, pleaded guilty in January. Chow, who represented herself, told the court in May that the law itself was on trial.

Lee and Chow were leaders of the now defunct Hong Kong Alliance, the group that organised annual vigils in the city’s Victoria Park.

Hong Kong and Macau were formerly the only places on Chinese soil that permitted public vigils to mourn those killed on 4 June 1989, when Chinese sent troops and tanks to crush protests calling for political reform in and around the capital’s Tiananmen Square.

However, public commemoration has been effectively banned since Beijing imposed a national security law on Hong Kong in 2020, after huge and sometimes violent pro-democracy protests the year before.

The Alliance’s leaders were charged in 2021 and have been behind bars since.

Dozens of police officers gathered outside the courthouse and ushered reporters away as they stopped to film audience members queueing outside before the hearing began on Friday.

Rights group Amnesty International has said Lee and Chow’s case “relies on vague, overly broad and arbitrary definitions of ‘subversion’”.