Forty-five pro-democracy activists, journalists and ex-lawmakers were sentenced to prison terms of four to 10 years on Tuesday in Hong Kong’s largest national security trial. The case, rooted in their participation in a 2020 unofficial primary election,

Pro-democracy activist Jimmy Lai said on Thursday he was against violence and had not sought to incite hatred against China and Hong Kong authorities by calling for protests to defend basic rights, speaking in his second day of testimony in a landmark national security trial.

Jimmy Lai, who is charged with national security offenses, testified that his newspaper “carried a torch to the reality” of people’s desire for freedom in the city.

The democracy advocates were charged in Hong Kong under a Beijing-imposed national security law in 2021 for their involvement in an unofficial primary election to pick opposition candidates.

Mo, 67, a former legislator who did plead guilty, received one of the shortest sentences of four years and two months. The judges held that she was an “active participant” in the scheme but gave her a relatively lenient sentence after taking her public service into account.

The defendants were prosecuted under a sweeping law imposed by Beijing that crushed a once-thriving pro-democracy movement.

Hong Kong's former colonial ruler Britain and the United States have condemned the trial and have called for Lai's immediate release. Hong Kong officials say Lai will receive a fa

Former publisher Jimmy Lai has denied that he asked a colleague to draft a list of potential sanction targets in testimony at his landmark national security trial in Hong Kong