UPDATE: As of May 12, 2026, there have been 1,940 political prisoners in Hong Kong since June 9, 2019. Of those, there are between 273 and 549 political prisoners currently behind bars. The reason for the broad estimate is that we have no mechanism to monitor the release of political prisoners. 549 political prisoners have yet to complete their sentences in full. But of those, 276 have completed two-thirds of their sentences and thus are eligible for early release for good conduct while in prison. We don’t know how many of those 276 have been granted early release. Of the 273 to 549 political prisoners currently behind bars, 61 are there for “national security” crimes and almost all of the rest are there for protest-related crimes, and of those, almost all for “riot.” Of the 61 currently behind bars for “national security” crimes, 30 were in the HK47 trial (for taking part in the pro-democracy primary election of 2020), nine in the Jimmy Lai trial, 16 are various others, and six are remanded in custody pending completion of their trial (including Chow Hang-tung, Lee Cheuk-yan and Albert Ho).