Hong Kong’s most vocal China critic, media tycoon Jimmy Lai, has been sentenced to 20 years in jail.
The British citizen’s sentence on two counts of conspiracy to collude with foreign forces and one for publishing seditious materials ends a legal saga that has spanned nearly five years.
Lai, founder of the Apple Daily newspaper, was first arrested in August 2020 and was convicted last year.
Monday’s 20-year sentence was within the harshest penalty “band” for offences of a “grave nature” and is the most severe punishment meted out yet, the three national security judges said.
Lai’s sentence was enhanced by the fact that he was the “mastermind” and driving force behind “persistent” foreign collusion conspiracies, the judges said.
They cited prosecution evidence that the conspiracies had sought sanctions, blockades and other hostile acts from the US and other countries while involving a web of individuals including Apple Daily staff, activists and foreigners.
Besides Lai, six former senior Apple Daily staffers, an activist and a paralegal were sentenced to jail terms ranging between six and 10 years.
“In the present case, Lai was no doubt the mastermind of all three conspiracies charged and therefore he warrants a heavier sentence,” the judges said. “As regards the others, it is difficult to distinguish their relative culpability.”
The 78-year-old has denied all the charges against him, saying in court he is a “political prisoner” facing persecution from Beijing.
Lai’s plight has been criticised by global leaders including US President Donald Trump and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, spotlighting a years-long national security crackdown in the China-ruled Asian financial hub, following mass pro-democracy protests in 2019.
Those concerns reflected in part Lai’s long-standing international profile as a pro-democracy critic of China’s Communist Party leadership and his extensive political connections, particularly among US Republicans - ties that prosecutors cited during the case.
At the height of the protests in July 2019, Lai met then-U.S. Vice President Mike Pence and then-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in Washington.
Beijing in 2020 imposed the national security law upon Hong Kong, saying it was necessary to stabilise the city after months of sometimes violent unrest.
The case has drawn calls for Lai, who friends and supporters say is in frail health with diabetes and high blood pressure, to be freed.
Lai’s son, Sebastien Lai, said from outside Hong Kong that the sentence “is devastating for our family and life-threatening for my father,” marking the “total destruction” of the Hong Kong legal system.
“After more than five years of relentlessly persecuting my father, it is time for China to do the right thing and release him before it is too late.”
Jimmy Lai, who is also one of Hong Kong’s most prominent Roman Catholics, arrived at the court on Monday in a white jacket, with hands held together in a praying gesture as he smiled and waved at supporters.
“The harsh 20-year sentence against 78-year-old Jimmy Lai is effectively a death sentence,” said Elaine Pearson, Asia director of Human Rights Watch. “A sentence of this magnitude is both cruel and profoundly unjust.”
