HONG KONG (AP) — After spending more than five years in Hong Kong’s prison, former pro-democracy lawmaker Wu Chi-wai finally got to embrace his wife and son in London last week. They wept with joy. But he could be sent back to the Chinese territory this week, far earlier than planned.

Wu, former chairman of Hong Kong’s once-largest opposition party, was one of 47 activists charged in 2021 in the city’s biggest case under a Beijing-imposed security law that crushed a previously thriving democracy movement. He was sentenced in 2024 to four years and five months in prison for conspiracy to commit subversion over his role in an unofficial primary election.