Hong Kong court finds former media tycoon guilty in national security trial
Former Hong Kong media mogul Jimmy Lai was found guilty of colluding with foreign powers under a national security law imposed by Beijing, following a landmark trial that sparked widespread criticism from human rights advocates as an attack on the rule of law in the global financial hub.
Lai, 78, faces a potential life sentence after being found guilty by three judges at Hong Kong’s High Court of charges under the security law on two counts of “conspiracy to engage in foreign collusion” and one count of “conspiracy to publish seditious publications”. Apple DailyChinese-language newspaper he founded in 1995, now closed
He has spent the last five years in solitary confinement after being arrested in August 2020 under a national security law used by authorities to suppress anti-government protests that raged in Hong Kong in 2019.
Jimmy Lai, center, was arrested by police officers at his home in Hong Kong in 2020.Credit: access point
Apple Daily It was a leading pro-democracy tabloid that harshly criticized the Chinese and Hong Kong governments. It closed in 2021 after authorities froze Lai’s bank accounts and arrested key staff.
Lai is the highest-profile target of the national security law, which has been used by Hong Kong authorities to detain hundreds of pro-democracy figures, opposition politicians, journalists and academics and crush political opposition in the city.
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Lai’s arrest and long-running trial sparked criticism from Western governments, including Australia’s, while human rights advocates argued it symbolized the decline of media freedom and judicial independence in the former British colony, which returned to Chinese rule in 1997.
His decision is also a test for Beijing’s diplomatic relations. US President Donald Trump said he had raised the issue with China, and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said his government had made it a priority to secure the release of British citizen Lai.
During Lai’s 156-day trial, prosecutors accused him of conspiring with senior executives. Apple Daily and others may require foreign powers to impose sanctions or blockades and take other hostile actions against Hong Kong or China. The prosecution also accused Lai of making such demands, pointing to his meetings with former US vice president Mike Pence and former secretary of state Mike Pompeo at the height of the protests in July 2019.
