In this July 28, 2019 photo, Joshua Wong Chi-fung (first left, back) attends a protest in Hong Kong, south China. (PHOTO / XINHUA)

All 47 opposition activists who were charged with conspiring to subvert state power under the National Security Law for Hong Kong were remanded in custody on Thursday. 

All 47 defendants, including activist Joshua Wong Chi-fung, were charged over their alleged roles in the opposition camp’s so-called primaries which were held in July 2020.

Chief Magistrate Victor So Wai-tak postponed the case to May 31 at prosecutors’ request.

Fifteen of the activists were granted bail, only to be ordered to remain in custody pending an appeal by the Department of Justice.

Prosecutors immediately applied for a review of the decision to grant bail for the 15 defendants. The High Court is expected to deal with the appeal within 48 hours.

So rejected the bail application of 31 other defendants as the marathon bail hearing went into a fourth day at the West Kowloon Magistrates’ Courts. The remaining defendant, Benny Tai Yiu-ting, one of the initiators of the illegal “Occupy” protests in 2014, withdrew his bail application at the last minute after his bail was revoked in a separate case.

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All 47 defendants, including activist Joshua Wong Chi-fung, were charged over their alleged roles in the opposition camp’s so-called primaries which were held in July 2020.   

The event was organized to select strong opposition candidates to run for the now-postponed Legislative Council election which was originally scheduled in September 2020. 

Its aim was to ensure the opposition camp to won a majority of the 70 seats in the LegCo and vote down the budget regardless of its contents to paralyze the Hong Kong government, according to the police. 

Life imprisonment is the maximum punishment for subversion under the city’s National Security Law.