Three former lawmakers have urged the High Court not to wait for the conclusion of an upcoming national security trial and to sentence them sooner now they have indicated they intend to plead guilty to a subversion charge.

Jeremy Tam, Kwok Ka-ki and Alvin Yeung are among 29 people who plan to admit conspiracy to commit subversion, after they joined Legco primary polls in 2020.

Eighteen other defendants are expected to plead not guilty.

At a case management hearing on Monday, the defence counsel for Tam, Kwok and Yeung said the trio are anxious after having spent a long period on remand and they would like to make their mitigation pleas and receive their sentences before the trial of 18 of their co-defendants.

They will each need around 45 minutes for the mitigation, the defence said.

The hearing also looked at the cases of two others who plan to plead guilty, Joshua Wong and Tam Tak-chi. Both said they were “neutral” on when they should receive their sentences, adding that their mitigation pleas will be completed within two hours.

The court asked the Department of Justice to provide its opinion on the issue on Tuesday.