The decision comes shortly after top Chinese politicians approved a sweeping plan that effectively ends open elections in Hong Kong. The city’s government separately charged some 47 prominent opposition figures with “conspiracy to commit subversion” under a national security law imposed last year that carries sentences as long as life in prison.

Hong Kong was rocked by months of protests in the second half of 2019,sparked by the extradition bill. The bill was eventually withdrawn,but the protests expanded to include full democracy and other demands and at times descended into violence between protesters and police.

In the aftermath of the protests,Beijing has taken a tougher stance on dissent,implementing a national security law on Hong Kong and approving electoral reforms that would reduce the public’s role in voting in lawmakers for the city’s legislature.

Taking part in an unlawful assembly or a riot in Hong Kong can result in a maximum sentence of up to 10 years imprisonment for serious offences.

Hong Kong police have swept up many of the city’s established opposition leaders among the more than 10,000 activists arrested since the protests erupted in June 2019. Some,such as Lai,face multiple prosecutions,including charges under the national security law.

Two former opposition lawmakers,Au Nok-hin and Leung Yiu-chung,had previously pleaded guilty to charges related to the August 2019 protest.

Lai,73,faces other charges under Hong Kong’s new security laws as well as fraud charges that he denies.

He has pushed other countries to punish China for its erosion of freedoms in Hong Kong. He travelled to the United States in 2019 to meet officials including then vice-president Mike Pence. And he has called for sanctions on Chinese officials.

Lee,a London-trained lawyer,has stoked Beijing’s ire for more than three decades,dating back to his support for the Tiananmen Square protests and subsequent defeat of the pro-establishment camp in Hong Kong’s first direct legislative elections. He sat on the committee that drafted Hong Kong’s post-handover charter,founded the Democratic Party and served as a lawmaker until his retirement in 2008.

Chinese authorities have accused him of being a “traitor” for testifying before the U.S. Congress,and in August 2019 labelled him as part of a “New Gang of Four” in a publication under the Communist Party’s top legal body. The piece also named Lai and Ho,a former Democratic Party leader and chief executive candidate,as members of the “gang” - a reference to a Communist Party faction jailed for attempting to seize power after Mao Zedong’s death in 1976.

AP,Bloomberg