Beijing, Dec 15, (dpa/GNA) – A Hong Kong court has convicted media tycoon Jimmy Lai, finding the founder of the pro-democracy newspaper Apple Daily guilty of conspiring to collude with foreign forces and of publishing seditious materials.
According to the Monday verdict, the 78-year-old was found guilty on all three charges, two of which related to colluding with foreign forces. He had pleaded not guilty to all counts and now faces a possible life sentence. The sentence will be given at a later date yet to be set.
Prosecutors had accused Lai of violating the controversial national security law, under which other pro-democracy activists have already been convicted, making the judges’ decision widely expected.
The judges found that Lai had been deliberately involved in conspiracies against the Beijing government and Hong Kong leadership over several years.
They said he aimed to promote the overthrow of the Chinese Communist Party and acted not merely by expressing political opinions but as a “mastermind,” using the platforms of his newspaper Apple Daily to advance these objectives.
According to media reports, the court scheduled a sentencing hearing for January 12. Three companies were also convicted, the 856-page ruling showed.
Lai has become a symbol of the pro-democracy movement in the Chinese special administrative region. He also holds a British passport.
He is the founder of Apple Daily, which was forced to shut down in 2021 after authorities launched investigations under a sweeping national security law imposed by Beijing. The law criminalizes acts deemed by Beijing to constitute sedition, secession and subversion.
Lai has already spent more than five years in prison after being convicted in earlier cases, and supporters have recently voiced growing concern about his health. He suffers from diabetes and heart problems and has reportedly lost a significant amount of weight, his supporters said.
Photographs taken outside the court in the West Kowloon district showed a heavy police presence and foreign diplomats.
Human rights and press freedom groups criticize verdict
Human rights advocates criticized the verdict, with Elaine Pearson, Asia director at Human Rights Watch, saying that Lai’s conviction “on bogus charges after five years of solitary confinement is both cruel and a travesty of justice.”
“The Chinese and Hong Kong governments should pay a cost for their unrelenting efforts to muzzle Hong Kong’s press,” Pearson added, as she called for the case to be dropped and for Lai’s immediate release.
“We are outraged that Jimmy Lai, Hong Kong’s symbol of press freedom, has been found guilty on trumped-up national security charges,” press freedom group Reporters Without Borders said in a statement.
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said “this sham conviction is a disgraceful act of persecution,” adding Lai’s “only crime is running a newspaper and defending democracy.”
The trial began in December 2023 and extended far beyond its originally scheduled 80 days, concluding in late August after more than 150 days of hearings.
GNA