A Macao court has sentenced pro-democracy ex-politician Au Kam-san to 12 years and six months in prison after a closed-door national security trial.

The ruling on Friday found 69-year-old Au guilty of subverting state power by spreading false information in 2023-2024 to disrupt Macao’s 2024 leadership election.

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The court said in a statement that Au also worked with “hostile organisations” abroad to spread a political agenda, and leaked confidential information to groups overseas.

“Although the defendant is a first-time offender and admitted to a considerable portion of the criminal facts, he demonstrated a high degree of intent. The degree of unlawfulness and the potential consequences of his crimes are both very serious,” the statement said.

His wife, Virginia Cheang, wrote in a public letter that the case was a political trial and a “groundless” persecution.

“From a closed-door trial to a public verdict, what kind of operation is this? It’s a political trial and it’s a groundless persecution to humiliate one’s character,” Cheang wrote.

Au’s arrest last year was the first public prosecution under Macao’s 2009 security law.

A former teacher, Au sat in the Beijing-dominated legislature for 20 years before resigning in 2021. He also helped organise Macao’s commemoration of the 1989 Tiananmen Square protest and massacre in Beijing.

Human Rights Watch’s deputy Asia director Maya Wang said the sentence sends a chilling message to peaceful critics and called on the European Union and Portugal to push for his release.

Macao’s government and China’s Hong Kong and Macao Affairs office all backed the sentence.

This comes a day after Hong Kong pro-democracy activist Joshua Wong, who has been imprisoned since 2020, was jailed for 10 more years under the city’s national security law.

Macao is a former Portuguese colony, which became a special administrative region of China in 1999.