Hong Kong court finds former media tycoon Jimmy Lai guilty in national security trial

Former Hong Kong media mogul Jimmy Lai has been found guilty of collusion with foreign forces under a Beijing-imposed national security law, after a landmark trial that drew widespread criticism from human rights advocates as an attack on the rule of law in the global financial hub.

Lai, 78, faces potential life imprisonment after he was found guilty by three judges in Hong Kong’s High Court on two counts of “conspiracy to foreign collusion” under the security law and one count of “conspiracy to publish seditious publications” in Apple Daily, the now-shuttered Chinese-language newspaper he founded in 1995

He has spent the past five years in solitary confinement after he was arrested in August 2020 under a national security law used by authorities to crack down on anti-government protests that swept through Hong Kong in 2019.

Jimmy Lai, centre, was arrested by police officers at his home in Hong Kong in 2020.Credit: AP

Apple Daily was a prominent pro-democracy tabloid that was stridently critical of the Chinese and Hong Kong governments. It closed in 2021 after authorities froze Lai’s bank accounts and arrested key staff members.

Lai is the most high-profile target of the national security law, which has been used by Hong Kong authorities to arrest hundreds of pro-democracy figures, opposition politicians, journalists and academics, crushing political dissent in the city.

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Lai’s arrest and long-running trial have drawn criticism from Western governments, including Australia’s, while human rights campaigners have argued it symbolises the decline 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 British 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.

In addition, it presented 161 publications, including Apple Daily articles, to the court as evidence of conspiracy to publish seditious materials, as well as social media posts and text messages.

More to come

With wires

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