Fifteen prominent pro-democracy activists appeared in a local court on Monday after being accused of joining banned protests at the height of a citywide movement to oppose the now-withdrawn extradition bill.

The activists, among them Apple Daily founder Jimmy Lai and former Democratic Party chairman Martin Lee, had been on bail over charges against their attendance in a few protests that were banned by the police in August and October last year.

Thousands were arrested last year in months of unrest when the city’s unpopular government saw massive demonstrations opposing the proposed legislation that would send criminal suspects to mainland China for trial. The government has branded those protests as riots during the period seen as one of the most tumultuous times in the city’s history.

Arriving at the city’s West Kowloon Magistrate Court, the activists were greeted by their supporters, but there was also a counter protest where 20 pro-Beijing campaigners shouted “traitors” at them. They observed a three-minute silence outside the court in memory of a young activist who fell to his death in the city centre in June last year after hanging a banner calling for the withdrawal of the controversial bill. He has since become an icon of the democratic movement.

Among the activists, Lee Cheuk-yan of the Labour Party accused the authorities of “political persecution”. “The purpose was to stir fears among Hong Kong people...but our standpoint is clear. We have the constitutional right to protest,” he said.

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