HONG KONG: A Hong Kong court on Tuesday jailed all 45 defendants convicted of subversion in the city´s largest national security trial, with “mastermind” Benny Tai receiving the longest term of 10 years.

International condemnation was swift, with Western countries and rights groups slamming the sentencing as evidence of the erosion of political freedoms in the city since Beijing imposed a security law in 2020.

Tai´s sentence was the longest yet handed out under the law, which was brought in to quash dissent after massive, sometimes violent pro-democracy protests in 2019.

His 44 co-defendants were sentenced to shorter terms beginning from four years and two months. All were charged with subversion after holding an informal poll in 2020 as part of a strategy to win a pro-democracy electoral majority.

The group is made up of some of the most prominent figures of Hong Kong´s once-diverse political opposition.

Among them, former student leader Joshua Wong shouted “I love Hong Kong, bye bye!” to the packed courtroom as he was led away after sentencing.

Wong gained international prominence in 2014 as a driving force behind protests known as the Umbrella Movement, which landed him on the cover of Time magazine when he was just a teenager.