Hong Kong Court Finds Media Mogul Jimmy Lai Guilty in National Security Case

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Hong Kong’s High Court on Monday found tycoon and pro-democracy campaigner Jimmy Lai guilty of conspiracy to collude with foreign forces in the city’s highest-profile trial under a China-imposed national security law that could see him jailed for life.

The landmark case has drawn international scrutiny of Hong Kong’s judicial independence amid a years-long crackdown on rights and freedoms in the global financial hub after 2019 pro-democracy protests that Beijing saw as a challenge to its rule.

While 78-year-old Lai’s supporters see him as a freedom fighter, Beijing sees him as a mastermind of the protests and a conspirator advocating for United States sanctions against Hong Kong and the mainland.

Chinese authorities have rejected accusations of eroding the city’s rule of law.

“There is no doubt” that Lai “had harboured his resentment and hatred of” China for many of his adult years, Judge Esther Toh told a packed courtroom as the tycoon, wearing a pale green jumper and a grey jacket, sat with his arms folded.

In the case, the panel of judges included Alex Lee and Susana D’Almada Remedios.

Lai, the founder of the now-shuttered Apple Daily newspaper and one of the most prominent critics of China’s Communist Party leadership, has already spent five years in jail, facing a slew of litigation under the sweeping security legislation that Beijing enacted in response to the 2019 protests.

A pre-sentencing hearing where Lai can plead for lenience is scheduled for 12 January. His lawyer Steven Kwan said Lai will decide whether to appeal after the sentencing.

Hong Kong leader John Lee and national security police chief Steve Li told reporters on Monday they welcomed the verdict.

Before departing for a routine visit to Beijing, the city’s leader expressed that the Judiciary remains steadfast and unyielding against intimidation, fully committed to its role in protecting national security.

Lai, who suffers from health issues including diabetes and high blood pressure, was found guilty on two counts of conspiracy to collude with foreign forces and one of conspiracy to publish seditious material. He had pleaded not guilty on all counts.

The verdict bookends a year that marked the essential disappearance of Hong Kong’s democratic opposition under pressure from Beijing. The Democratic Party voted to disband on Sunday.

Outside the court, people overnight formed a queue more than a block long, some with camping gear, seeking to attend the verdict.

Authorities maintained a vigilant presence around the premises.

Beh Lih Yi, who serves as the Asia-Pacific director for the Committee to Protect Journalists, criticized the ruling as a “sham conviction” and condemned it as a “disgraceful act of persecution.”

Lai’s trial began in December 2023 in the former British colony that reverted to Chinese rule in 1997, with the verdict seen as a potential fresh diplomatic flashpoint.

Countries including the United States and Britain, as well as rights groups, say the trial is politically motivated and have called for Lai’s immediate release.

US president Donald Trump raised Lai’s case with China’s leader, Xi Jinping, in a meeting in October and has said he would do his utmost to “save” Lai.

Lai faced convictions on two charges of conspiracy to collude with foreign forces and an additional charge of conspiracy to publish seditious material. Source: AAP

Media mogul Jimmy Lai is escorted out of a Correctional Services Department vehicle on his way to the Court of Final Appeal in Hong Kong on 9 February 2021.

Lai was found guilty on two counts of conspiracy to collude with foreign forces and one of conspiracy to publish seditious material. Source: AAP

“The ruling underscores Hong Kong’s utter contempt for press freedom,” she said. “Jimmy Lai’s only crime is running a newspaper and defending democracy.”

Other groups, such as Amnesty International, and pro-democracy activists who fled the city after the protests fearing prosecution have also condemned the verdict.

The Chinese and Hong Kong governments have said his trial was “fair and just” and that the national security law treats all equally. They have said no freedoms are absolute when it comes to safeguarding national security.

Lai’s family say his health has worsened after more than 1,800 days in solitary confinement, and that he suffers from diabetes, high blood pressure and heart palpitations.

Verdict comes at delicate moment for Hong Kong

His verdict comes as Hong Kong residents have been mourning after a fire last month killed at least 160 people in one of the worst blazes in a residential complex globally in recent years.

Authorities have warned they would crack down on anyone who tried to use the fire to “plunge Hong Kong back into the chaos” of 2019.

After the verdict, China’s national security office in Hong Kong called Lai a “pawn of external anti-China forces” who attempted a “colour revolution” in the city.

“We strongly condemn the political manipulation of Hong Kong by a small number of Western politicians and anti-China media under the guise of ‘human rights’ and ‘freedom’, openly exonerating Jimmy Lai,” it said in a statement.