Hong Kong pro-democracy media tycoon Jimmy Lai faces life in prison after being found guilty of national security and sedition offences which rights groups have condemned as a “sham conviction” and “a disgraceful act of persecution”, The Guardian reports.
Seventy-eight-year-old Lai’s national security trial has 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.
The next court date is 12 January, and Lai has an opportunity to appeal.
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.
According to The Guardian, 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 aforeign ministry spokesperson said the Chinese government supported Hong Kong authorities’ efforts “punishing criminal acts that endanger national security”.
However, rights groups were swift in their condemnation.
Beh Lih Yi, the Asia-Pacific director of the Committee to Protect Journalists, is quoted as saying: “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.
“Jimmy Lai’s only crime is running a newspaper and defending democracy.”
Amnesty International’s China director, Sarah Brooks, said the verdict’s predictability did 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. It said in a statement: “This ruling serves as a declaration to the world that Hong Kong’s freedoms, democracy and judicial independence have been systematically eroded.”
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, Sir Keir Starmer.
[Image: Jimmy Lai on his way to the Court of Final Appeal, in 2020. By Pakkin Leung @Rice Post, CC BY 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=98315290]