The court is also expected to set dates for hearing mitigation pleas from anyone convicted, including the 31 accused who admitted to conspiring to subvert state power, an offence punishable by up to life imprisonment.

The opposition-led primary was held in July 2020 to pick the strongest candidates to compete in the official Legislative Council election, due to take place two months later.

The 47 politicians and activists allegedly plotted to paralyse the government and topple then chief executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor by seizing a controlling majority in the Legislative Council to block government budgets.

The Basic Law, the city’s mini-constitution, provides that the chief executive must resign if the same financial blueprint is rejected twice by the legislature.

Prosecutors described the primary as a plot to turn the legislature into a “constitutional weapon of mass destruction” against the government, a term borrowed from legal scholar Benny Tai Yiu-ting, who floated the idea in an article published in March 2020.

The prosecutors relied on Tai’s articles about “mutual destruction”, a plan they said was meant to eventually implicate Beijing. Speeches made at various press conferences and in election forums, as well as pledges signed by the primary’s participants, were also highlighted in court.

The government eventually postponed the Legco election, citing the coronavirus pandemic as the reason.

During a year-long adjournment, the opposition camp faced an unprecedented crackdown, with Beijing introducing changes to the city’s electoral system to ensure “patriots” ruled Hong Kong.

Ten out of the 16 defendants who pleaded not guilty chose to give evidence in court.

All of them denied reaching a prior agreement to block government budgets, but some displayed a firmer stance than the rest when asked about their previous public statements.

Former lawmaker Raymond Chan Chi-chuen, and ex-district councillors Kalvin Ho Kai-ming, Michael Pang Cheuk-kei, Tat Cheng Tat-hung and Lee Yue-shun said they opposed an indiscriminate vote against the budgets.

Activists Owen Chow Ka-shing and Winnie Yu Wai-ming, as well as former district councillor Sze Tak-loy, said they would reject the budgets as long as the government refused to agree to protesters’ demands, which included introducing universal suffrage, during the 2019 unrest.

Journalist turned activist Gwyneth Ho Kwai-lam insisted on her “constitutional duty” to veto the budgets, not in an attempt to coerce the government but because of concerns that authorities had ways to bypass legislative scrutiny while seeking funding approval.

Lawrence Lau Wai-chung, a former district councillor, said he was more concerned about “political suicide” by not pledging to reject the financial proposals.

Meanwhile, former lawmakers Helena Wong Pik-wan, Lam Cheuk-ting and “Long Hair” Leung Kwok-hung, ex-district councillors Clarisse Yeung Suet-ying and Ricky Or Yiu-lam, and Gordon Ng Ching-hang, who allegedly coordinated the primary, all chose not to testify.

Thirty-five of the 47 accused are currently remanded in custody, with some having been imprisoned for more than three years since their prosecution in March 2021.

If convicted, the opposition figures will also be affected by the newly enacted Safeguarding National Security Ordinance, which does not allow early release.

Under the previous rules, prisoners could have a third of their sentence reduced on the grounds of good behaviour.

But the new law stipulates that a prisoner convicted of national security offences “must not be granted remission” unless the commissioner of correctional services is satisfied the move will “not be contrary to the interests of national security”.