Hong Kong’s most prominent China critic, media tycoon Jimmy Lai, was sentenced to 20 years in prison on Monday, concluding the city’s largest and most consequential national security trial.
The verdict has intensified international scrutiny of Beijing’s approach to dissent in Hong Kong and underscored the sweeping reach of the national security law imposed in 2020.
Lai, 78, the founder of the now-defunct Apple Daily newspaper, was convicted on two counts of conspiracy to collude with foreign forces and one count of publishing seditious materials after a legal process spanning nearly five years.
Judges said Lai’s sentence fell within the harshest tier for offenses deemed of a “grave nature” under the national security law.
They described him as the central figure behind what they called persistent conspiracies aimed at encouraging sanctions and other hostile actions by the United States and other countries.
“In the present case, Lai was no doubt the mastermind of all three conspiracies charged and therefore he warrants a heavier sentence,” the judges said.
Six former senior Apple Daily executives, along with an activist and a paralegal, received prison terms ranging from six to 10 years in the same case.
Lai, a British citizen who has denied all charges, has characterized himself as a political prisoner facing persecution from Beijing.
He was first arrested in August 2020, and Apple Daily was forced to shut down the following year.
The sentencing drew immediate condemnation from press freedom and human rights groups, as well as criticism from several governments.
British Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper said the punishment was “tantamount to a life sentence” and called for Lai’s release on humanitarian grounds.
The British government said it would engage further with Chinese authorities following the ruling.
Authorities in Taiwan condemned the sentence, while Hong Kong and Beijing officials defended it as lawful and necessary.
China’s Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office said the ruling demonstrated that challenges to national security would be met with severe punishment.
Hong Kong police officials described the sentence as appropriate and dismissed concerns about Lai’s health as exaggerated.
Supporters and family members have raised growing concerns about Lai’s wellbeing after more than four years in detention, much of it spent in solitary confinement.