Seven Hong Kong fugitives who were caught while trying to flee to Taiwan by boat two years ago were sentenced on Friday to 10 months in jail each for evading criminal proceedings over their roles in the 2019 anti-government protests.

Six of the defendants pleaded guilty on Thursday at West Kowloon Court to a joint count of doing an act or a series of acts tending or intended to pervert the course of public justice with their plan to seek asylum overseas in August 2020.

The six were: Liu Tsz-man, 19; Cheng Tsz-ho, 20; Cheung Chun-fu, 25; Kok Tsz-lun, 21; Cheung Ming-yu, 23; and Yim Man-him, 23. The seventh, Li Tsz-yin, 32, pleaded guilty on Friday morning.

They were among 12 Hongkongers detained across the border in the summer of 2020 after their vessel was intercepted by the national coastguard in mainland Chinese waters. The fugitives were either facing prosecution or being pursued by police over alleged offences linked to the 2019 unrest when they fled the city.

Deputy District Judge Newman Wong Hing-wai said a prison term was the only appropriate sentencing option to reflect the high level of premeditation and active involvement by all 12 members and their accomplices in the plan to abscond from the city.

“The general public has been left with an impression as to the defendants’ disdain for Hong Kong’s judicial system and challenge against the administration of justice,” he said.

The judge also reduced the sentences for each of the seven on the grounds of their guilty pleas and that they had already served jail time on the mainland.

Wong added that it was probably the first time in the city’s history that prosecutors had invoked the more serious offence of perversion of justice for skipping court proceedings, instead of the lesser count of failure to surrender to custody.

“I deeply regret the need to sentence to jail those who would have been capable youngsters,” he said in his closing remarks. “However, a country has its own laws and a family its rules. Those who break the law must be sanctioned.”

Prosecutors have described the escape plan as a detailed and organised one, with the accomplices sharing responsibility for setting up safe houses, buying necessary supplies and funding their trip.

Some of the 12 were told that members of the Mainland Affairs Council in Taiwan would be waiting for them on the shore of Kaohsiung to assist the group in obtaining permanent residency. A woman associated with the now-disbanded Hong Kong Indigenous group was said to have acted as a bridge for communication among the conspirators.

The 12 departed by speedboat from Po Toi O in Sai Kung under the guise of a fishing trip on the morning of August 23, 2020, but were arrested by mainland authorities on the same day.

Ten of the 12 were jailed for between seven months and three years after a closed-door trial at a Shenzhen court. The other two, Liu and Hoang Lam-phuc, 17, were handed over to Hong Kong authorities without charge due to their young age.

Li, who is serving a 3½-year jail term for rioting and assaulting a police officer in September 2019, had an additional seven months tagged on to his sentence following the latest ruling.

A separate judge on Saturday will sentence Liu and Cheng for possession of materials used for producing petrol bombs ahead of National Day on October 1, 2019.

Kok is currently awaiting sentencing for a count of rioting near Polytechnic University in November 2019. Meanwhile, the two Cheungs and Yim will stand trial at the High Court over an alleged plot to kill police officers during a march in December 2019.

Hoang and fellow fugitive Wong Wai-yin, 31, had previously been sanctioned for their roles in the trip.

National security law defendant Andy Li Yu-hin, 31, and two others who are still serving time across the border for organising the trip have not been charged with a perversion offence.

Prosecutors said there were still accomplices at large, some of whom had already left Hong Kong.