As pro-democracy media tycoon Jimmy Lai faces a potential life sentence in the high-stakes national security case in Hong Kong, his son Sebastien Lai has denounced the proceedings as a politically motivated “show trial” driven by a China-led crackdown on dissent.
Lai, the founder of the now-defunct Apple Daily newspaper, is facing charges of conspiracy to collude with foreign forces and publishing seditious materials, all of which are crimes under Hong Kong’s controversial national security law, which was imposed by Beijing. Lai denies all the charges.