Four former opposition lawmakers jailed under Hong Kong’s sweeping national security law were released from prison on Tuesday after completing their sentences, becoming the first among 45 convicted defendants in the city’s largest subversion case to regain their freedom.
Claudia Mo, 68, a former journalist and lawmaker, was freed from Lo Wu Correctional Institution just before sunrise, according to police.
Fellow opposition figures Kwok Ka-ki, Jeremy Tam, and Gary Fan were also released on the same day from Stanley Prison and Shek Pik Prison.
All four were seen leaving in vehicles with curtained windows, with police confirming their identities, according to a report by Agence France-Presse.
The four had pleaded guilty to subversion charges and were sentenced in November to four years and two months in prison. They had been held in custody since March 2021 and received credit for time served.
Their sentences were the lightest among the 47 democracy activists charged under the Beijing-imposed national security law, with additional six-month reductions granted due to their guilty pleas and what authorities cited as “past public service and ignorance of the law.”
The case stems from a 2020 unofficial primary election organized by Hong Kong’s pro-democracy camp, which authorities deemed part of a conspiracy to “subvert state power” by planning to veto government budgets if elected to the legislature.
The prosecution targeted a broad range of political figures — from moderate to radical — including lawmakers, district councillors, unionists, and scholars.
Western governments and rights organizations condemned the sentencing of the four. The United States denounced the penalties as “unjust,” while the UN human rights office expressed “grave concern.”
Mo, a former reporter for Agence France-Presse, entered politics after covering the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown, which she described as transformative to her political convictions.
She co-founded the now-defunct Civic Party in 2006 and won a legislative seat in 2012. Kwok, 63, a urologist by profession, and Tam, 49, a former airline pilot, were also Civic Party members. Fan, 58, co-founded the Neo Democrats party, which advocated for electoral reform and resisted Beijing’s influence.
The heaviest sentence in the case — 10 years — was handed to legal scholar Benny Tai, described by prosecutors as the “mastermind” behind the plan.
Since the national security law was enacted in 2020 in response to mass pro-democracy protests, Hong Kong authorities have arrested 322 individuals and secured 163 convictions as of early April.
A separate, locally enacted security law was also introduced in 2023, further tightening control over dissent in the territory.
