Lawyers for five Hong Kong opposition figures prosecuted over last year’s social unrest have asked a court to order police to return their seized mobile phones, fearing an abuse of power after a magistrate granted officers unlimited access to the devices.

But the judges say distrust of police is not an issue for the courts to deal with, while reserving their judgment till a later date in the month.

The points were made in a High Court hearing on Thursday, after it granted a temporary order in favour of veteran pan-democrat Martin Lee Chu-ming and four others – Albert Ho Chun-yan, Au Nok-hin, Sin Chung-kai and Yeung Sum – to prevent police from extracting information from their phones.