Jimmy Lai was sentenced to 20 years in prison for the national security crime of Hong Kong
Listen to this article
Average 3 minutes
The audio version of this article was created by AI-based technology. It can be mispronounced. We are working with our partners to continuously review and improve the results.
Jimmy Lai, a former Hong Kong media mogul and staunch critic of Beijing, has been sentenced to 20 years in prison in one of the most high-profile cases prosecuted under a national security law imposed by China that has largely silenced dissent in the city.
Judge Esther Toh said Lai’s 18-year sentence should run consecutively to his prison term in his fraud case, for which he received a sentence of five years and nine months. Lai can appeal his case.
The co-defendants received sentences between six years and three months and 10 years.
Three judges examined by the government spared Lai, 78, the maximum sentence of life in prison on charges of conspiring to collaborate with foreign forces to endanger national security, and conspiring to publish seditious materials.
He was convicted in December. Given his age, a prison sentence could have kept him in prison for the rest of his life.
Hong Kong journalist Jimmy Lai has already risked his newspaper’s public criticism of Beijing, including the new national security law, and has been arrested for organizing pro-democracy protests. He tells National producer Adrienne Arsenault that Hong Kong as it is known by its people and the rest of the world is in danger of disappearing.
Before Lai left the court, he looked serious, as some people in the public gallery were crying. Earlier, Hong Kong’s Roman Catholic Cardinal Joseph Zen sat next to Lai’s wife when she arrived for the sentencing.
The arrest and trial of a pro-democracy lawyer raised concerns about declining media freedom in what was once Asia’s hotbed of media freedom.
The government insists the case has nothing to do with free media, saying the defendants used news reporting as an excuse to commit acts that harm China and Hong Kong.
Lai was one of the first prominent people to be arrested under the security law in 2020.
Within a year, other top reporters at Apple Daily, the newspaper founded by Lai, were also arrested. Police raids, prosecutions and the freezing of its assets forced the newspaper to close in June 2021. The last issue sold a million copies.
Lai’s conviction could increase tensions between Beijing and foreign governments. His conviction drew criticism from the US and the UK
US President Donald Trump said he was deeply saddened by the decision and noted that he had spoken to Chinese leader Xi Jinping about Lai and “asked him to consider his release.”
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s government has also called for the release of Lai, who is a British citizen.
Lai’s daughter, Claire, told the Associated Press that she hoped the authorities would see the wisdom of releasing her father, who is Roman Catholic. He said their faith depends on God. “We will never stop fighting until he is free,” he said.
