Jimmy Lai, a pro-democracy former Hong Kong media mogul and outspoken critic of Beijing, was convicted in a landmark national security trial on Monday, which could send him to prison for the rest of his life.
Three government-vetted judges found Lai, 78, guilty of conspiring with others to collude with foreign forces to endanger national security and conspiracy to publish seditious articles. He pleaded not guilty to all charges.
Lai was arrested in August 2020 under a Beijing-imposed national security law that had been implemented following massive anti-government protests in 2019.
He co-founded Apple Daily, a vocal critic of the Hong Kong government and Beijing, which was forced to shut in 2021 after police raided its newsroom and arrested its senior journalists, with authorities freezing its assets.
Reading from an 855-page verdict, Judge Esther Toh said that Lai had extended a “constant invitation” to the US to help bring down the Chinese government with the excuse of helping Hong Kongers.
Lai’s lawyers admitted during the trial that he had called for sanctions before the law took effect, but insisted he dropped these calls to comply with the law.
But the judges ruled that Lai had never wavered in his intention to destabilise the ruling Chinese Communist Party, “continuing though in a less explicit way."
His trial, conducted without a jury, has been closely monitored by the US, Britain, the European Union and political observers as a barometer of media freedom and judicial independence in the former British colony, which returned to Chinese rule in 1997.
His verdict is also a test for Beijing’s diplomatic ties. US President Donald Trump said he has raised the case with China, and UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer has said his government has made it a priority to secure the release of Lai, who is a British citizen.
During Lai’s 156-day trial, prosecutors accused him of conspiring with senior executives of Apple Daily and others to request foreign forces to impose sanctions or blockades and engage in other hostile activities against Hong Kong or China.
The prosecution also accused Lai of making such requests, highlighting his meetings with former US Vice President Mike Pence and former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in July 2019 at the height of the protests.
It also presented 161 publications, including Apple Daily articles, to the court as evidence, as well as social media posts and text messages.
Lai testified for 52 days in his own defence, arguing that he had not called for foreign sanctions after the sweeping security law was imposed in June 2020.
Rights groups, including global media watchdog Reporters Without Borders and Amnesty International, denounced the verdict.
“It is not an individual who has been on trial — it is press freedom itself, and with this verdict that has been shattered,” said Reporters Without Borders' director general Thibaut Bruttin.
Lai's trial was one of the last ongoing national security cases following Hong Kong's 2019 mass protest movement. Last year, 45 leading activists from the pro-democracy movement were sentenced to prison terms under the same national security law.
Hundreds of activists, lawyers and politicians have been pursued and jailed, or forced into exile.
