Landmark Hong Kong National Security Trial Ends With a Conviction

Jimmy Lai, the pro-democracy former Hong Kong media mogul and outspoken critic of Beijing, was convicted in a landmark national security trial in the city's court on Monday, which could send him to prison for the rest of his life, the AP reports. Three government-vetted judges found Lai, 78, guilty of conspiring with others to collude with foreign forces to endanger national security and conspiracy to publish seditious articles. He pleaded not guilty to all charges. Lai, 78, was arrested in August 2020 under a Beijing-imposed national security law that was implemented following massive anti-government protests in 2019. During his five years in custody, Lai has been sentenced for several lesser offenses, and appears to have grown more frail and thinner.

Lai's trial, conducted without a jury, has been closely monitored by the US, Britain, the European Union, and political observers as a barometer of media freedom and judicial independence in the former British colony, which returned to Chinese rule in 1997. Reading from an 855-page verdict, Judge Esther Toh said that the evidence showed Lai had extended "constant invitations" to the US to help bring down the Chinese government and had spent years considering what leverage the US could use. "There is no doubt that the first defendant had harbored his resentment and hatred of the PRC for many of his adult years," Toh said, using an acronym for the People's Republic of China.

His verdict is a test for Beijing's diplomatic ties. US President Trump said he has raised the case with China, and UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer has said his government has made it a priority to secure the release of Lai, who is a British citizen. The founder of the now-defunct pro-democracy newspaper Apple Daily was convicted on two counts of conspiracy to commit collusion with foreign forces to endanger national security, in addition to one count of conspiracy to distribute seditious publications. A four-day mitigation hearing was set to begin Jan. 12 for Lai to argue for a shorter sentence. Lai testified for 52 days in his own defense, arguing that he had not called for foreign sanctions after the sweeping security law was imposed in June 2020.