The exterior view of Shek Pik Prison in Hong Kong, Tuesday, April 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Chan Long Hei)

HONG KONG (AP) — Four former Hong Kong lawmakers were freed from prison on Tuesday, having served more than four years for their conviction under a Beijing-imposed law that crushed a once-thriving pro-democracy movement.

Claudia Mo, Jeremy Tam, Kwok Ka-ki and Gary Fan were among 47 activists arrested in 2021 for their roles in an unofficial primary election. They were the first of the convicted activists to reunite with their families and friends following years of separation.

Only vehicles involved in the release operation were seen leaving the three prisons in the remote areas of the Asian financial hub under tight security. The curtains of the vehicles were down. Reporters who waited for hours outside the prisons where they were held were unable to see them in person around the facilities.

An Associated Press reporter saw Mo's husband, Philip Bowring, waiting for the activist to return home at their residence before being escorted by police out of the area where they live.

In a video posted by local online media HK01, Fan, when asked by a reporter about his feelings, thanked Hong Kongers and the media for their concern. He added he was going to reunite with his family.

The 2020 unofficial primary drew 610,000 voters, and its winners had been expected to advance to the official legislative election. Authorities postponed that, however, citing public health risks during the COVID-19 pandemic.

During the trial, prosecutors said the activists aimed to paralyze Hong Kong's government and force the city's leader to resign by aiming to win a legislative majority and using it to block government budgets indiscriminately. The judges said in their verdict last year that the activists' plans to effect change through the unofficial primary would have undermined the government's authority and created a constitutional crisis.

Only two of the 47 original defendants were acquitted. The remaining activists received prison terms ranging from four years and two months to 10 years on a charge of conspiracy to commit subversion. Mo, Tam, Kwok and Fan, who got the shortest terms, had their sentences reduced after pleading guilty.

Regardless of their term length, years of separation have pained the activists and their families. The case involved democracy advocates across the spectrum. They include legal scholar Benny Tai, who got a 10-year prison term, and former student leader Joshua Wong, who has to serve four years and eight months.

Fourteen of the convicted activists would appeal their cases. The government lawyers would also appeal the acquittal of one activist.

Critics said their convictions illustrated how authorities crushed dissent following massive anti-government protests in 2019, alongside media crackdowns and reduced public choice in elections. The drastic political changes reflect that the Western-style civil liberties Beijing promised to retain in the former British colony for 50 years when it returned to China in 1997 were shrinking, they said.

Beijing and Hong Kong governments insisted the national security law was necessary for the city's stability. China defended the judicial decisions, despite criticism from foreign governments.