Hong Kong (CNN) A Hong Kong court has found three prominent activists guilty for leading mass pro-democracy protests that brought parts of the city to a standstill in 2014.

Benny Tai, Chan Kin-man and Reverend Chu Yiu-ming were among nine defendants found guilty of a range of public nuisance offenses on Tuesday. Lawmaker Tanya Chan was also found guilty of "incitement to commit public nuisance."

Sentencing will take place later, with the defendants facing up to seven years in prison on each charge.

Tai, along with Chan and Chu, was the mastermind of Occupy Central with Love and Peace, a proposed civil disobedience action calling for free elections. The action evolved -- amid tear gas and outrage -- into the much larger Umbrella Movement, featuring more than 100,000 protesters over 79 days.

Tai has long said that he would be willing to go to prison, pointing to sentences already served by younger opposition figures such as Joshua Wong.