Who is Jimmy Lai, the HK media tycoon on trial for national security crimes?

Jimmy Lai, the pro -democracy of Hong Kong, who was greeted by some as a hero and underestimated by others as a traitor, is in the final stage of the national security case.

Closing arguments Beijing was planned to begin on Thursday for Lai, accused of struggling with foreign forces under a national security law imposed.

However, the morning hearing of the “black” rain storm warning warning – Hong Kong’s top -level warning – was postponed for sweeping the city on Thursday. If the weather warning is not removed local at 11:00 (03:00 GMT), hearings will be postponed for the rest of the day.

The hearing attracted attention internationally and wants British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer Lai to be released. 77-year-old British and Chinese citizenship-China does not recognize bilateral nationality and therefore sees Lai only as Chinese.

Lai has been detained since December 2020 and is sentenced to maximum life imprisonment if he is convicted.

Critics say that Lai’s case shows how Hong Kong’s legal system was armed to silence political opposition.

Lai had a permanent thorns on the Chinese side. Unlike other Tycoons in Hong Kong, Lai was one of the most violent critics of the Chinese state and was a leading figure defending democracy in the old British territory.

In an interview to the BBC in 2020, hours before being accused, he said, “I was born a rebellious rebellion.” “I have a very rebellious character.”

In response to the major protests that exploded in Hong Kong a year ago, China is the leading person accused under the controversial National Security Law introduced in 2020.

The legislation accuses Beijing a wider range of actions that thinks that it is destruction and separation, as well as other things.

Beijing says that the national security law is necessary to maintain stability in Hong Kong, but the opposition is effectively illegal.

Over the years, Lai’s son Sebastien asked him to be released. In February, Genç Lai, Starmer and US President Donald Trump called on an emergency action and added that his father’s “body was destroyed”.

In Guangzhou, a city in South China, Lai was born in a rich family who lost everything when the communists came to power in 1949.

When the mainland escaped from the village in China, he was 12 years old when he came to Hong Kong as a swayway on a fisherman’s boat.

He taught himself English while weird things and knitting in a small clothing shop. At the end of a financial role, he went to establish a millions of dollars of empire, including the international clothing brand Giordano.

The chain was a great success. However, when China sent tanks to crush the pro -democracy protests in Beijing Tiananmen Square in 1989, she began a new journey as an activist and an entrepreneur of Lai vocal democracy.

He began to write columns criticizing the massacre that followed the demonstrations in Beijing and founded a publisher who continued to be one of the most influential of Hong Kong.

While China threatened to turn off the main stores and sell the company, Lai launched a series of popular pro -democracy titles including the next, digital magazine and the most widely read Apple Daily newspaper.

In the local media environment, Lai, who was increasingly fearful Beijing, was a constant critic with both the publications and writing of Chinese authorities.

This saw that he was a hero for many people in Hong Kong, who saw him as a man who took great risks to defend the city’s freedoms.

However, the mainland is seen as a “traitor” that threatens the national security of China.

In recent years, the masked attackers fired Lai’s house and the company center. It was also the target of an assassination plan.

However, none of the threats prevented him from publishing his views firmly. It was a leading part of the city’s pro -democracy demonstrations and was arrested twice in 2021 of the illegal Assembly charges.

When China passed Hong Kong’s new national security law in June 2020, Lai told BBC that the BBC was “death Knell” for the region.

Effective entrepreneur De Hong Kong will be as corrupt as China warned. He said that without the superiority of law, the greedy status as a global financial center would be “completely destroyed”.

Media is known for its honesty and flashy actions.

In 2021, Donald called on Trump to help the region, saying that he was the only person who could save us from China. The newspaper Apple Daily released a pre -page letter that ends: “Mr. President, please help us.”

For Lai, such actions were required to defend the city that took it and offered its success.

Once upon a time, the news agency told AFP: “I came here without anything, this place gave me everything … Maybe it is time for this freedom to repay for this freedom.”

LAI has been slapped with various charges, including unauthorized parliament and fraud since 2020.

He’s been detained since December of that year.

LAI’s prosecution, rights groups and foreign governments have attracted international interest that wanted to be released.

Over the years, Sebastien Lai condemned his father’s arrest and punishing Hong Kong to punish Hong Kong.

“My father is in prison for the truth on his lips, courage in his heart and freedom in his soul.” He said.