Hong Kong frees 4 pro-democracy lawmakers

The first batch of individuals jailed in the landmark Hong Kong national security trial of “47 democrats” accused of conspiracy to commit subversion were freed on Tuesday after being behind bars for more than four years.

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Four former pro-democracy lawmakers, Claudia Mo, Kwok Ka-ki, Jeremy Tam and Gary Fan, were driven away in cars, with curtains drawn across side windows, from three separate prisons across Hong Kong around dawn.

Security was tight with patrols of police officers and access to some roads to the prisons restricted for hours beforehand.

The vehicles took the democrats directly to their homes, where they were chaperoned by scores of officers up to their front doors.