The High Court of Hong Kong found Jimmy Lai, the proprietor of the anti-communist newspaper Apple Daily and several other free journalism outlets, guilty of violating various provisions of the Chinese “national security law” imposed on the country in 2020 to crush dissent.
Lai, 78, faces a minimum sentence of ten years in prison for each crime he allegedly committed.
The court published an 855-page ruling claiming that Lai’s support for the massive, peaceful anti-communist protests that gripped the region in 2019 was part of a “seditious” plot to undermine the Chinese Communist Party. Under the “One Country, Two Systems” policy, Communist Party law from Beijing is not supposed to apply in Hong Kong, a former British colony and formerly a capitalist stronghold in the region. Following the protests, the Communist Party effectively eliminated “One Country, Two Systems” by passing the “national security” law and using it as a bludgeon to imprison, exile, or otherwise silence every anti-communist voice in the territory.
According to the Chinese state propaganda newspaper Global Times, Lai was specifically found guilty of “two charges of conspiring to collude with external forces and a charge of conspiracy to publish seditious materials.” The “national security” law created four new crimes designed to silence pro-democracy voices: instigating secession, promoting foreign interference, “subversion of state power,” and “terrorism.” The law’s minimum sentencing requirement for a guilty verdict is ten years.
“The charges alleged that between April 1, 2019 and June 24, 2021, the defendants, together with Jimmy Lai, conspired with six former senior executives of Apple Daily and others to print, publish, sell, offer for sale, distribute, display, or reproduce seditious publications,” the Global Times claimed, “and to conspire to request foreign institutions, organizations, or individuals to impose sanctions, blockades, or other hostile actions against the Hong Kong SAR or the People’s Republic of China.”
The “conspiracy” in question was the publication of Apple Daily, a prominent anti-communist newspaper. The court also found Lai guilty of meeting with American then-Vice President Mike Pence and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, claiming this was alleged evidence of foreign collusion.
“As Hong Kong’s first non-guilty plea case involving the “conspiracy to collude with foreign forces” offense, the court found Jimmy Lai guilty on all charges, carrying a maximum sentence of life imprisonment,” the Global Times noted.
The Apple Daily corporate family — consisting of the three companies Apple Daily Ltd, Apple Daily Printing Ltd, and AD Internet Ltd — were also found guilty of “conspiracy to publish seditious publications and a conspiracy to commit foreign collusion.”
Lai was one of the most prominent supporters of the 2019 peaceful anti-communist protests in Hong Kong and one of the region’s most successful escapees from communist China. A prominent Catholic, Lai was a regular at the Hong Kong protests and publicly refused to flee the region, even as it became increasingly clear the Communist Party would imprison and silence him.
“If I go away, I not only give up my destiny, I give up God, I give up my religion, I give up what I believe in,” he said in 2020.
Human rights groups condemned the conviction as a symbol of the destruction of freedom in Hong Kong.
“The ruling by three judges designated under Hong Kong’s National Security Law… is a travesty of justice that confirms the complete dismantling of Hong Kong’s once-respected legal system,” the group Human Rights in China declared in a statement on Monday.
“The claim that he ‘masterminded’ a conspiracy is a political fiction designed to silence dissent and intimidate Hong Kong society. This verdict marks the effective end of the rule of law in Hong Kong,” the group explained. “We call on governments, legal institutions, and the international community to reject this verdict, demand Mr. Lai’s immediate and unconditional release, and hold those responsible for this judicial farce accountable. Journalism is not a crime.”
Anti-communist Cardinal Joseph Zen, a consistent opponent of the Chinese Communist Party, accompanied the Lai family to the verdict on Monday.
Following the issuing of the verdict, Lai’s family demanded the world, and especially the United Kingdom, intervene to save his life. Lai is a British citizen.
“How can you expect a fruitful relationship when they can’t even put a 78-year-old man, who has such ill health, on a plane and send him back?” son Sebastien Lai said during a press conference, referring to the British-Chinese diplomatic relationship. “It signifies a Hong Kong that is no longer run by logic and rationality, a government that is spiteful and hateful.”
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer is expected to visit China in January. British Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper issued a statement on Monday condemning the conviction and declaring Lai innocent.
“Jimmy Lai has been targeted by the Chinese and Hong Kong governments for peacefully exercising his right to freedom of expression,” she wrote. “The UK has repeatedly called for the National Security Law to be repealed and for an end to the prosecution of all individuals charged under it.”
The Hong Kong 2019 protests objected to the Communist Party in China’s attempted to undermine “One Country, Two Systems” by attempting to prosecute Hongkongers for violating Chinese laws. They were the largest known protests in Hong Kong history, attracting at their peak 2 million of the region’s 7 million residents. Beijing silenced the protests through mass violent arrests and ended “One Country, Two Systems” with the imposition of the “national security” law.
Lai’s trial began in 2023; the Chinese Foreign Ministry openly declared him guilty long before any evidence was presented at trial.
“Jimmy Lai is a major mastermind and participant of the anti-China riots in Hong Kong. He is an agent and pawn of the anti-China forces, and the person behind the riots in Hong Kong,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin told reporters as the trial began. “What he did was detrimental to Hong Kong’s prosperity and stability and the wellbeing of the people in Hong Kong.”
The Foreign Ministry again celebrated the imprisonment of the elderly media mogul on Monday.
“China deplores and firmly opposes certain country blatantly making false accusations against Hong Kong’s judicial affairs,” spokesman Guo Jiakun declared, referring to condemnations from the international community. “The relevant judicial case is purely Hong Kong’s internal affair. We urge relevant country to respect China’s sovereignty and the rule of law in Hong Kong, and refrain from making irresponsible remarks on the trial of judicial cases.”
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