Hong Kong: Australian man Gordon Ng has been jailed for seven years and three months by a Hong Kong court, as part of a mass sentencing of pro-democracy activists that underscores Beijing’s triumph in silencing political dissent under its sweeping national security law.

Ng was one of 47 democracy campaigners – many of them former opposition politicians – charged with conspiring to commit subversion under the Beijing-imposed law over their involvement in holding an unofficial primary election in July 2020.

Legal scholar Benny Tai, who was labelled the key organiser, was sentenced to 10 years jail, the most severe sentence handed out in a case that was seen by many Hong Kongers and internationally as designed to stamp out political opposition in the financial hub.

The sentences ranged between four and ten years, an outcome more moderate than many were expecting with the maximum penalty ranging between 10 years and life imprisonment.

A Hong Kong-Australian dual citizen, Ng attended Waverley College in Sydney’s eastern suburbs, before studying mathematics and commerce at the University of New South Wales, and has been in jail since his arrest in February 2021.

Foreign Minister Penny Wong said the Australian government was “gravely concerned” by the sentence handed to Ng and the other pro-democracy campaigners, and called on China to cease “suppression of freedoms of expression, assembly, media and civil society.”

“Australia has expressed our strong objections to the Chinese and Hong Kong authorities on the continuing broad application of national security legislation, including in application to Australian citizens,” Wong said in a statement.

“This is a deeply difficult time for Mr Ng, his family and supporters. Our thoughts are with them following the sentencing.”

Known as the “Hong Kong 47”, Ng and 13 others were convicted in May following a 118-day trial, and two were acquitted, in the city’s biggest prosecution of pro-democracy figures.