Hong Kong's High Court on Tuesday jailed a leading pro-democracy activist for 10 years at the start of sentencing in a years-long national security trial that has damaged the city's once feisty pro-democracy movement and drawn global criticism.

Benny Tai was among 45 Hong Kong pro-democracy figures sentenced on Tuesday after being convicted of conspiring to commit subversion.

HONG KONG — Forty-five ex-lawmakers and activists were sentenced to four to 10 years in prison Tuesday in Hong Kong’s biggest national security case under a Beijing-imposed law that crushed a once-thriving pro-democracy movement.

Hong Kong legal scholar Benny Tai was sentenced to 10 years in prison on Tuesday (Nov 19) for subversion, the longest sentence handed out so far under the city’s national security law.

James Pomfret is a Special Correspondent for Reuters covering politics and policy in Asia, with a specialization on China, Hong Kong and Taiwan. A two-time Pulitzer finalist, his

A Hong Kong court sentenced former democracy advocate Benny Tai to 10 years in prison, the longest sentence ever meted out using a China-imposed security law, in a move likely to further deter dissent in the finance hub and attract condemnation from Western governments.