Ten Hong Kong activists arrested at sea as they tried to flee to Taiwan by speedboat have been sentenced and jailed by China for between seven months and three years, according to a BBC report.

Two others of the Hong Kong 12, as the group is now called, are minors and will be returned to Hong Kong.

The activists were caught in August as they made a rare attempt to escape the city after a harsh new security law was introduced by Beijing in June.

They were accused of making or organising an illegal border crossing.

The Shenzhen court sentenced Tang Kai Yin and Quinn Moon to three years and two years in jail respectively for planning and organising the escape, a statement said.

The remaining eight activists were sentenced to a "lighter punishment" of seven months in prison for illegally crossing the border, it added.

The two minors – aged 16 and 17 – will be handed over to Hong Kong police, reported Chinese state media earlier on Wednesday.

The case has attracted huge global attention at a time of growing fears about the vanishing democratic rights of the semi-autonomous territory of Hong Kong.

The defendants’ family-appointed lawyers, who were denied access to their clients, and rights groups criticised the legal process.

“These sentences meted out after an unfair trial lay bare the dangers faced by anybody who finds themselves tried under the Chinese criminal system,” Amnesty International’s Asia-Pacific Regional Director Yamini Mishra said in a statement.

“This group of young Hongkongers will be at risk of torture and other ill-treatment in Chinese jails.”
All 10 had pleaded guilty to their crimes, the court said. The defendants all appeared for the verdicts and were taken away afterwards.

Families of the activists say they were only notified of the date of the trial – closed to foreign reporters and diplomats – three days before the hearing. Their lawyers were barred from meeting the detainees..