Jimmy Lai: conviction of Hong Kong pro-democracy figure decried as attack on press freedom

Rights groups dismiss ‘sham conviction’ of media tycoon on national security offences in city’s most closely watched rulings in decades

The rise and fall of Jimmy Lai, whose trajectory mirrored that of Hong Kong itself

Helen Davidson in Hong Kong

Jimmy Lai, the Hong Kong pro-democracy media tycoon, is facing life in prison after being found guilty of national security and sedition offences, in one of the most closely watched rulings since the city’s return to Chinese rule in 1997.

Soon after the ruling was delivered, rights and press groups decried the verdict as a “sham conviction” and an attack on press freedom.

Britain reiterated its stance that the prosecution was “politically motivated” and called for the immediate release of Lai, who is a British citizen. Lai’s conviction comes just weeks before an expected visit to Beijing by the UK prime minister, Keir Starmer.

Lai, 78, has been in jail since late 2020 on remand and serving several protest-related sentences totalling almost 10 years. Monday’s conviction, in which judges called him a “mastermind” of conspiracies designed to destabilise the Chinese government, came after a controversial trial that stretched for more than two years.

Lai appeared in the West Kowloon district court on Monday, in a grey jacket, flanked by armed guards as he sat in the glass-walled dock, as his family sat nearby. Crowds of supporters and onlookers, some of whom had queued overnight, had packed the main courtroom and several spillover rooms to see the highly anticipated – but widely predicted – verdict delivered.

A prison van believed to be carrying Jimmy Lai leaving the West Kowloon magistrates courts building after the verdict. Photograph: Lam Yik/Reuters

Lai had been charged with one count of conspiracy to publish seditious publications and two counts of conspiracy to foreign collusion, under the city’s punitive national security law (NSL), introduced in 2020, and a British colonial-era sedition law that has seen renewed use in recent years by authorities.

Prosecutors had accused Lai of using his media outlet, Apple Daily, and foreign political connections to lobby for governments to impose sanctions and other punitive measures on Chinese and Hong Kong authorities.

He had pleaded not guilty to all charges, but in their 855-page judgment the judges, who are picked by the government for national security cases, said the evidence was “clear”.

“There is no doubt in our mind that the first defendant never wavered in his intention to destabilise the governance of the CCP [Chinese Communist party], and despite the enactment of the national security law, he was intent on continuing, though in a less explicit way,” the high court judge Esther Toh told the court on Monday, reading out a written judgment.

The next court date is 12 January, and Lai has an opportunity to appeal.

The ruling was welcomed by Hong Kong’s chief executive, John Lee, and its security police chief, Steve Li, who said the judges were “professional”. In Beijing a foreign ministry spokesperson said the Chinese government supported Hong Kong authorities’ efforts “punishing criminal acts that endanger national security”.

A Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson, Guo Jiakun, speaking about Lai’s trial verdict on Monday. Photograph: Jessica Lee/EPA

Rights groups condemned the verdict, with the Committee to Protect Journalists calling it a “sham conviction” and “a disgraceful act of persecution”.

“The ruling underscores Hong Kong’s utter contempt for press freedom, which is supposed to be protected under the city’s mini-constitution, the Basic Law,” said the Asia-Pacific director of the committee, Beh Lih Yi.

“Jimmy Lai’s only crime is running a newspaper and defending democracy. The risk of him dying from ill health in prison increases as each day passes – he must be reunited with his family immediately.”

Amnesty International’s China director, Sarah Brooks, said the verdict’s predictability didn not make it “any less dismaying”. Elaine Pearson, the Asia director at Human Rights Watch, called the conviction cruel and a travesty of justice. “The Chinese government’s mistreatment of Jimmy Lai aims to silence everyone who dares to criticise the Communist party,” Pearson said.

Taiwan’s mainland affairs council, the government department in charge of China policy, also called for Lai’s release. “This ruling serves as a declaration to the world that Hong Kong’s freedoms, democracy and judicial independence have been systematically eroded,” it said.

Three Apply Daily entities – Apple Daily Limited, Apple Daily Printing Limited and AD Internet Limited – which were co-accused with Lai, were also found guilty of the two foreign collusion charges.

People waiting outside the West Kowloon law courts on Sunday night. Photograph: Leung Man Hei/AFP/Getty Images

Lai had pleaded not guilty to all charges, telling the court he had “hoped against hope” that the US president, Donald Trump, would stop Beijing imposing its national security law on the city, but that he had never tried to influence foreign policy or ask foreign officials to take concrete action on Hong Kong.

A frequent criticism of the Hong Kong authorities’ national security prosecutions is that they at times appear to apply it retrospectively, even though it is not supposed to be applied that way. Messages and meetings from before the law was imposed formed a major part of the prosecution against Lai.

In its judgment the court said it was “very clear” to them that Lai “had harboured his hatred and resentment for the [People’s Republic of China] for many of his adult years”, and had been thinking about how the US could apply leverage towards China from long before the national security law was introduced.

“The only reasonable inference we can draw from the preponderance of the evidence, is that the first defendant’s intention – pre or post NSL – was to seek the downfall of the CCP, even though the ultimate cost was the sacrifice of the people of the PRC [People’s Republic of China] and HKSAR [Hong Kong Special Administrative Region].”

Samuel Chu, the head of the US-based Campaign for Hong Kong, said the case was a grave miscarriage of justice, tried “under a legal architecture fundamentally remade to ensure conviction”.

“For anyone who has engaged Hong Kong’s legal system in good faith – as lawyers, advocates, or observers – this represents a decisive rupture with the city’s common-law tradition,” he said.

On Monday, there was a large police presence – uniformed and in plainclothes – outside the West Kowloon district court, as well as a large media gathering. The queue for the public appeared smaller than on previous key moments, such as the day Lai gave testimony, and big days for other cases such as that of the Hong Kong 47, which drew hundreds of people.

Crowds outside the court on Monday. Photograph: Nexpher/ZUMA Press Wire/Shutterstock

Lai’s national security trial had lasted more than two years. During that time the Hong Kong government had laws rewritten to limit bail rights and restrict foreign lawyers from defending Lai. Final arguments were delivered in August.

Lai’s family have repeatedly raised concerns about his ailing health, as he languished in solitary confinement, allegedly subjected to “petty” efforts designed to demoralise him. Hong Kong authorities repeatedly rejected the accusations.

Supporters and observers had queued outside the court on Monday, some arriving the previous night to gain entry to the court complex. Passersby noted widespread allegations that some people were often paid by pro-Beijing groups to reserve seats that might otherwise be taken by supporters and international observers. But none of those in the queue would speak to the Guardian.

Simon, an older Hong Kong man, said he wanted to support Lai and his wife, Teresa, by being here. He and a friend were holding bright red apples, to represent the now-shuttered Apple Daily newspaper which Lai founded and which stands as his co-accused.

Source: Jimmy Lai: conviction of Hong Kong pro-democracy figure decried as attack on press freedom | Hong Kong | The Guardian