Closing summary
It’s approaching 1.30pm in Hong Kong and we’re about to wrap up our live coverage of the verdicts handed down against pro-democracy media tycoon Jimmy Lai. Here’s our full report on all the key details, and a recap of today’s events is below. Thanks for being with us.
Lai could be jailed for life after being found guilty of conspiracy to collude with foreign forces in the city’s highest-profile trial under a China-imposed national security law. Judges in the Hong Kong high court on Monday called him a “mastermind” of conspiracies designed to destabilise the Chinese government.
Lai, 78, was charged with one count of conspiracy to publish seditious publications and two counts of conspiracy to foreign collusion, charges brought under the city’s punitive national security law and a British colonial-era sedition law that has seen renewed use in recent years by authorities.
Rights groups condemned the verdicts, with the Committee to Protect Journalists calling it a “sham conviction” and Amnesty International saying it “feels like the death knell for press freedom in Hong Kong”. Human Rights Watch called the conviction cruel and a travesty of justice.
Three entities of Lai’s now-defunct media outlet Apply Daily were co-accused with Lai were also found guilty of the two foreign collusion charges.
Lai had pleaded not guilty to all charges, telling the court he never tried to influence foreign policy or ask foreign officials to take concrete action on Hong Kong. He also distanced himself from violence and separatism, saying Apple Daily represented Hongkongers’ core values such as “freedom, pursuit of democracy, freedom of speech”.
Lai is serving several protest-related sentences totalling almost 10 years and could be given a life sentence for today’s convictions. Sentencing is to be delivered at a later time, with the next court date on 12 January and Lai having an opportunity to appeal.
There was a large police presence outside the law courts building in West Kowloon for the verdicts at a trial that stretched for more than two years.
Lai’s family has said 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.
With Helen Davidson and agencies
Updated
Taiwan has also condemned the guilty verdicts against Jimmy Lai and called for his immediate release.
“This ruling serves as a declaration to the world that Hong Kong’s freedoms, democracy, and judicial independence have been systematically eroded,” Taiwan’s China-policy making Mainland Affairs Council said in a statement quoted by Reuters.
