Nine veteran Hong Kong activists face prison after being found guilty of illegal assembly charges on Thursday for their role in organizing one of the city's largest democracy protests in 2019.

Some of the city's most influential pro-democracy activists were among the defendants, many of whom are nonviolence proponents who have spent decades fighting for majority rule in vain.

They are the newest group of democracy activists to face charges as China conducts a wide-ranging crackdown on dissent in the wake of seven months of anti-government demonstrations in the financial center.

Martin Lee, an 82-year-old barrister who was selected by Beijing to assist in the writing of Hong Kong's mini-constitution, and Margaret Ng, a 73-year-old barrister and former opposition lawmaker, are among them. Jimmy Lai, a media tycoon who was arrested under Beijing's new national security law, is currently in detention.

An opposition leader, Leung Kwok-hung, who was also detained on national security grounds, was also sent down. Others are leaders of the Civil Human Rights Front (CHRF), a group that has staged a series of massive protests around the country in 2019. Outside court on Thursday morning, several people sounded defiant as they awaited the verdict. Lee Cheuk-yan, a former lawmaker and labor activist, told reporters, "We are very proud even though we have to go to jail for it." “No matter what happens in the future, we will keep marching.” Seven people were found guilty of planning and engaging in an unlawful assembly.

On August 18, 2019, the group was charged with staging an unauthorized assembly, in Hong Kong that year, with people taking to the streets to demand democracy and greater police transparency. According to organizers, 1.7 million people attended, accounting for nearly one-quarter of Hong Kong residents.

In Hong Kong, protests can only take place with the approval of officials, and human rights organizations have long criticised the use of unauthorized assembly prosecutions.

Following harsh criticism from both the UK government and British legal bodies for his decision to take the position, British lawyer David Perry, who was appointed by the Hong Kong government to be the lead prosecutor, stepped down.

Prosecutors charged the party for disobeying police orders that day and inciting crowds to march across Hong Kong's main island, causing traffic congestion. District Judge AJ Woodcock stated in her decision that she was leaning toward the maximum penalty and that the fact that the march was non-violent with no protection.

“It cannot be right for a criminal to say that, even if his act was unlawful, he should not be punished, charged, or convicted because it was ultimately non-violent and there was no violence,” she wrote.

The rallies, frequently devolved into clashes between riot police and a splinter group of hardliners, presented the most concerted threat to China's rule since the former British colony was handed over in 1997.

Under the combined weight of fatigue, 10,000 prosecutions, and the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic, the campaign finally fizzled out. Since then, authorities have launched a wide-ranging crackdown, and Beijing has enacted a new security law that criminalizes much opposition.

Chinese leaders passed a new law governing Hong Kong's already limited local elections earlier this week. The number of democratically accountable seats in the 90-seat legislature has been reduced to less than a tenth, and those seeking public office must be verified for their "patriotism" by national security police and authorities.

The leaders of China and Hong Kong say the steps are important to restore stability to the financial center. Critics claim that Beijing has eroded the freedoms and autonomy that Hong Kong was promised after the handover.