Forty-five Hong Kong opposition figures were jailed on Tuesday for four to 10 years for their participation in a plot to overthrow the government in 2020, with former legal scholar Benny Tai Yiu-ting receiving the stiffest sentence for masterminding an unauthorised legislative “primary” election to subvert state power.

A Hong Kong court has sentenced dozens of pro-democracy leaders to years in jail for subversion, following a controversial national security trial. Benny Tai, 60, and Joshua Wong, 28, were among the so-called Hong Kong 47 group of activists and lawmakers who were involved in a plan to pick opposition candidates for local elections.

It's Hong Kong’s biggest national security case under a Beijing-imposed law that crushed a once-thriving pro-democracy movement.