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

Four former pro-democracy lawmakers, including Claudia Mo, Kwok Ka-ki, Jeremy Tam and Gary Fan were driven away 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.

A Reuters witness outside the maximum security Stanley Prison, where Kwok and Tam were held, was told by a police officer they had left.

Vehicles were also seen leaving the more remote Shek Pik Prison on Lantau Island and a women’s correctional institution at Lo Wu close to the border with mainland China.

Police blocked access to two roads leading to the entrance of Shek Kip Prison, so media could only stand on a bridge next to a reservoir overlooking the ocean-facing facility.

Fan, speaking to the press when he arrived at his home early on Tuesday, said: “I will go back home and reunite with family. Thank you Hong Kongers.”

Philip Bowring, Mo’s husband, said she was calm on her return home and needed time to rest, local media reported.

Since large and sustained pro-democracy protests erupted in Hong Kong for most of 2019, China has cracked down on the democratic opposition as well as liberal civil society and media outlets under sweeping national security laws.

The 47 pro-democracy campaigners were arrested and charged in early 2021 with conspiracy to commit subversion under a Beijing-imposed national law which carried sentences of up to life in prison.

Forty-five of these were convicted following a marathon trial, with sentences of up to 10 years. Only two were acquitted.

All four had been denied bail since being charged and were remanded in custody for nearly two years before the trial kicked off in early 2023. All four had pleaded guilty, and were sentenced to four years and two months imprisonment.

Mo, Kwok and Tam were former members of the Civic Party, once one of Hong Kong’s leading pro-democracy parties, which was disbanded in early 2024 amid the national security crackdown.

Mo resigned from the Civic Party in 2016 and founded the localist group HK First with Fan of the Neo Democrats.

The democrats were found guilty of organizing an unofficial “primary election” in 2020 to select candidates for a legislative election. Prosecutors accused the activists of plotting to paralyze the government by engaging in potentially disruptive acts had they been elected.

Western governments including the US called the trial politically motivated and had demanded the democrats be freed.

Hong Kong and Beijing, however, say all are equal under the national security laws and the democrats received a fair trial.

A cardinal convicted of financial crimes by the Vatican said Tuesday he will not take part in the secret conclave to elect the new pope.

Cardinal Giovanni Angelo Becciu, once one of the most powerful figures in the Vatican, was ordered by Pope Francis in 2020 to resign the “rights and privileges” of a cardinal after he became embroiled in a Vatican financial scandal.

Following the pope’s death last week, Becciu launched an appeal in support of his right to be in the conclave, but on Tuesday, he issued a statement announcing he was formally pulling out. “I have decided to obey, as I have always done, Pope Francis’ will not to enter the Conclave while remaining convinced of my innocence,” he said.

Cardinals have chosen May 7 as the date to start conclave and elect a new leader for 1.4 billion Catholics around the world, the Vatican announced Monday.

Becciu’s decision to withdraw from the conclave comes just seven days after he told a Sardinian newspaper that “there was no explicit will to exclude me from the conclave nor a request for my explicit renunciation in writing.”

The Sardinian cardinal previously held the position of “sostituto” (“substitute”) in the Holy See’s Secretariat of State – a papal chief of staff equivalent. The role offered Becciu walk-in privileges to see the pope and he commanded huge authority across the church’s central government. He was later moved to a position running the Vatican’s saint-making department.

Becciu was convicted of embezzlement and fraud in 2023 and handed a five-and-a-half-year jail sentence. He is the first cardinal to be convicted by the Vatican’s criminal court.

But the cardinal, who has always maintained his innocence, launched an appeal that’s currently still under consideration. He’s allowed to continue to live in a Vatican apartment while this process is underway.

The trial of a woman accused of murdering three elderly people after allegedly serving them a lunch of poisonous mushrooms began in Australia on Tuesday, as additional charges of the attempted murder of her husband were dropped by prosecutors.

Erin Patterson is charged with the 2023 murders of her mother-in-law Gail Patterson, father-in-law Donald Patterson and Gail’s sister Heather Wilkinson, along with the attempted murder of Ian Wilkinson, Heather’s husband, in a case that has gripped Australia.

All four became ill after the lunch hosted by the accused at her home in Leongatha, a town of around 6,000 people some 135 kilometers (84 miles) from Melbourne.

Prosecutors allege the mushrooms were served to the victims as part of a beef Wellington.

Fifteen jurors were selected on Tuesday at the Latrobe Valley Magistrates’ Court in nearby Morwell, with the opening arguments expected to begin on Wednesday morning.

Charges regarding the attempted murder of the accused’s husband, Simon Patterson, have been dropped by prosecutors, Justice Christopher Beale told the court on Tuesday.

“Those charges have been dropped and you must put them out of your mind,” he told the jury.

Erin Patterson has pleaded not guilty to all charges.

The case has generated huge interest both in Australia and internationally, with the six seats in the courtroom reserved for media allocated in a daily ballot. Dozens more are expected to watch proceedings in an overflow room set up at the court.

State broadcaster ABC is producing a daily podcast during the trial, which is expected to run for five to six weeks, while streaming service Stan has commissioned a documentary on what it says is “one of the highest profile criminal cases in recent history.”