Four former Hong Kong lawmakers have been released after spending more than four years in prison for their conviction under a Beijing-imposed law that crushed a once-thriving pro-democracy movement.

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

Dozens of prominent Hong Kong pro-democracy activists are scheduled to be sentenced Tuesday in the biggest case under a national security law that critics say has crushed political activism in the semi-autonomous Chinese city.

A Hong Kong court on Tuesday began to hear pleas for lenient sentences from some prominent pro-democracy activists who were found guilty in the city’s biggest national security case and now face up to life in prison.

Verdicts have been handed down in Hong Kong’s largest national security case to date.

FILE - In this Nov. 28, 2019, file photo, pro-democracy activist Joshua Wong stands outside the Legislative Council building in Hong Kong. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung, File)HONG KONG – Jailed Hong Kong pro-democracy activist Joshua Wong was arrested on a new charge under the national security law on Thursday while an American rights lawyer who was detained in a sweeping crackdown was granted bail. The security law criminalizes acts of subversion, secession, terrorism and collusion with foreign powers to intervene in the city’s affairs. “China’s taking a big gamble by picking away at parts of the Hong Kong system that it doesn’t like,” he said. “It really risks damaging parts that it values.”___Associated Press video journalist Alice Fung in Hong Kong and writer Ken Moritsugu in Beijing contributed to this report.

(AP Photo/Vincent Yu, File)HONG KONG – Hong Kong police arrested 53 former lawmakers and democracy proponents Wednesday for allegedly violating the new national security law by participating in unofficial election primaries for the territory's legislature last year. The security law criminalizes acts of subversion, secession, terrorism and collusion with foreign powers to intervene in the city’s affairs. “The Biden-Harris administration will stand with the people of Hong Kong and against Beijing’s crackdown on democracy,” Blinken wrote in his tweet. The security law is being used “to crush dissent and stifle the exercise of human rights and political freedoms.”Human Rights Watch senior China researcher Maya Wang said the national security law is a blanket law that allows the government to arrest people for exercising their rights. “Hong Kong is looking more like mainland China but where one ends and the other begins is hard to discern,” she said.

(AP Photo/Vincent Yu)HONG KONG Hong Kong police have made their first major arrests under a new national security law, detaining four young people Wednesday on suspicion of inciting secession. Police said the group had made comments on social media since the law took effect that urged independence for Hong Kong, a semi-autonomous Chinese territory. They say they want to establish a Hong Kong republic, and that they will unreservedly fight for it, said Li Kwai-wah, senior superintendent of a newly formed unit to enforce the security law. Hong Kong was promised its own governing and legal system until 2047, or 50 years after the former British colony was returned to China in 1997. That prompted Beijing to pass the security law, saying opposition to the legislation made its passage impossible at the local level in Hong Kong.