Fourteen people have been found guilty in Hong Kong’s largest national security trial, the prosecution of the so-called “Hong Kong 47” pro-democracy campaigners. Sixteen of the cohort had pleaded not guilty to charges of conspiracy to commit subversion for organising pre-election primaries, and were among those detained in mass dawn raids by national security police in January 2021. Most have been in jail awaiting trial ever since. The charges of “conspiracy to subvert state power” were laid against them under the national security law which had been introduced seven months earlier. On Thursday morning the 16 defendants sat in the docks behind a glass panel, as the three-judge panel began reading their decision. “After considering all the evidence and submissions, the court found [14 defendants] guilt of the charge,” the panel said. Two defendants, former district councillor Laurence Lau Wai-chung and Lee Yue-shun, a former social worker, were acquitted of the charge. The pair had both run as candidates in the primaries, and are the first acquittals to be granted after a national security law prosecution. The court then adjourned to allow parties time to read the judgment and discuss any applications they wished to pursue. The two acquitted defendants were allowed to leave the dock, but the prosecution requested they remain remanded on bail however, while they considered appeals. Of the “Hong Kong 47” group, the remaining 31 who pleaded guilty are still awaiting the outcomes of their cases. The judges had decided to complete the trial of the others before moving on to sentencing. The 10-month trial finished in December, more than 1,000 days after the cohort had first been arrested. Beginning Thursday, three national security judges are expected to spend at least two days delivering their full verdicts against the 16 defendants, including one organiser of the primaries, dual Hong Kong-Australian national Gordon Ng, and 15 candidates. Those found guilty face jail sentences of up to life in prison. Observers began lining up outside the West Kowloon courts before midnight, hoping for a seat inside to watch the hearing. By morning the queue had grown to a few hundred people, with a large contingent of media and a heavy police presence. Grandma Wong, a well-known activist, waved a Hong Kong flag outside and shouted in protest. One supporter arrived at 4am. “I want to go inside to show my support [for the defendants],” she told the Guardian. “This is a case about the election and I think the government is putting some unreasonable charges against them, and it’s not acceptable.” The Hongkonger declined to give her name for fear of being identified, but said she wasn’t worried about attending court in support of the pro-democracy figures. “It’s our right to have an open court and to go inside and listen.” At least a dozen foreign diplomats, mostly from the European Union, also attended. The deputy head of the EU office, Matthias Kauffman, said they had been following the case closely. “We observe trials to show our interest and commitment to human rights and democracy worldwide.” Most of the 47 had been denied bail, including Jimmy Sham, who was labelled a “determined and resolute young man” for continuing to insist on the five demands of the pro-democracy protesters, and 65-year-old former legislator Claudia Mo, whose WhatsApp messages with western journalists in the preceding years had been cited as evidence she was a national security risk. The prosecution of the Hong Kong 47 has been extensively criticised by foreign governments, human rights groups and the defendants’ lawyers. The arrests themselves were criticised as politically motivated. Others accused Hong Kong of denying procedural fairness with a judge-only trial, and hearing dates that stretched out over the course of months with repeated delays. The court system – already under strain after the arrest of thousands during the 2019 protests – appeared to struggle with such a large group of accused. The pre-election primaries were held on 11 and 12 July 2020, organised by legal scholar and activist Benny Tai. Tai was also an organiser of the 2014 “umbrella movement” protests, for which he served four months of a 16-month prison sentence. Prosecutors had argued Tai’s plan for the primaries to gain a majority in parliament and eventually force a dissolution and the resignation of the chief executive amounted to an abuse of powers and a subversive conspiracy. Days prior, Hong Kong minister Erick Tsang warned in an interview that the primaries could violate the national security law (NSL), which had been active for a bit more than a week. The informal primaries went ahead, as they had done in previous years for both sides of politics, and more than 600,000 residents took part in what many observers characterised as a protest vote against the Hong Kong government. More than six months later, the organisers, candidates, and workers involved were arrested, with most later released. A senior police official told media the plans of the organisers amounted to subversion. The head of Beijing’s Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office has called for the “severe punishment” of two of the accused – Tai and well known student protester Joshua Wong, calling them “the most vicious traitors”. The Hong Kong government crackdown has left the city with essentially no active political opposition. Scores have been arrested or jailed, others scared into silence. Many have fled overseas, including some who were facing charges. The Hong Kong government has issued large bounties for several “fugitives”, leading several countries hosting exiled Hongkongers to tear up their bilateral extradition agreements. Michael Mo, a former district councillor and academic now based overseas, said on X on the eve of the hearing that organising an unofficial primary has never been, and should never be, considered subversion. “For people like us, who are living in exile, we should make those who stifled the city’s freedom pay their price.” In March, the government introduced another national security law, known as Article 23. The law does not supersede the existing NSL, but fulfils a long-held constitutional obligation for the territory to enact its own legislation. This week saw the first arrests under the new law, of six people accused of publishing messages with seditious intent ahead of “an upcoming sensitive date”, according to police. Next week is the 35th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre, an event which is banned from public acknowledgment in mainland China, but was commemorated by tens of thousands in Hong Kong until 2020.