Hong Kong’s High Court on Monday found tycoon and pro-democracy activist Jimmy Lai guilty of conspiring to conspire with foreign forces in the city’s high-profile trial under a Chinese-imposed national security law that could land him in prison for life.
The landmark case has led to international scrutiny of Hong Kong’s judicial independence amid a years-long crackdown on rights and freedoms in the global financial center following 2019 pro-democracy protests, which 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 US sanctions on 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 harbored “his grudge and hatred against” China for many of his adult years, Judge Esther Toh told a packed courtroom as the tycoon, wearing a light green sweater and gray jacket, sat with his arms folded.
The two other judges in his case were Alex Lee and Susana D’Almada Remedios.
To leavethe founder of the now defunct Apple Daily newspaper and one of the most prominent critics of the Chinese Communist Party leadership has already spent five years in prison, facing a slew of lawsuits under the sweeping security legislation Beijing enacted in response to the 2019 protests.
A pre-sentencing hearing is scheduled for January 12, at which Lai could plead for leniency. His lawyer Steven Kwan said Lai will decide whether to appeal after sentencing.
Hong Kong leader John Lee and national security police chief Steve Li told reporters on Monday they welcomed the verdict.
“The judiciary is confident and not afraid of any intimidation and resolutely takes its responsibility to safeguard national security,” the city’s leader said at the airport ahead of a regular visit to Beijing.
Lai, who suffers from health problems including diabetes and high blood pressure, was found guilty of two counts of conspiracy to collaborate with foreign forces and one of conspiracy to publish seditious material. He had pleaded not guilty on all counts.
The verdict marks the end of 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 at night, people formed a line more than a block long, some with camping gear, wanting to attend the verdict.
Police were monitoring the area around the building.
International criticism
Lai’s trial began in December 2023 in the former British colony that returned to Chinese rule in 1997, with the verdict seen as a potential new 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 Chinese leader Xi Jinping at a meeting in October, saying he would do his utmost to “save” Lai.
The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade said in a statement that “Australia is deeply concerned by the guilty verdict handed down to Jimmy Lai in Hong Kong today.”
“We have been clear in expressing our strong concerns to the Hong Kong authorities over the continued broad application of national security law to arrest and pressure pro-democracy figures, opposition groups, media, trade unions and civil society.”
It said it would “continue to raise human rights issues directly with the governments of Hong Kong and China regularly and at the highest levels.”
Lai was found guilty of two counts of conspiring with foreign forces and one of conspiracy to publish seditious material. Source: MONKEY
“We continue to call on China to cease its suppression of freedom of expression, assembly, media and civil society, in line with the recommendations of the Human Rights Committee, and call for the repeal of the National Security Law in Hong Kong.”
Beh Lih Yi, director of the Committee to Protect Journalists in Asia and the Pacific, called the verdict a “sham conviction” and “a shameful act of persecution.”
“The ruling underlines Hong Kong’s total disregard 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 for fear of persecution, 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 everyone equally. They have said that no freedom is absolute when it comes to ensuring national security.
Lai’s family says his health has deteriorated after more than 1,800 days in solitary confinement, and he suffers from diabetes, high blood pressure and heart palpitations.
The verdict comes at a sensitive time for Hong Kong
His judgment comes as Hong Kong residents mourned after a fire last month killed at least 160 people in one of the worst residential complex fires worldwide in recent years.
Authorities have warned they will crack down on anyone who tries to use fire to “plunge Hong Kong back into the chaos” of 2019.
After the ruling, China’s National Security Bureau in Hong Kong called Lai a “pawn of external anti-China forces” trying to bring about a “color 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,” the report said in a statement.
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