Hong Kong pro-democracy activist and media mogul Jimmy Lai was being hailed by supporters as the city’s “conscience” on Monday after he was sentenced to 20 years in prison on national security charges.
Once a penniless teenage refugee who arrived in Hong Kong as a stowaway, Mr Lai rose to become one of the city’s most influential media moguls now its most prominent political prisoner.
Mr Lai, 78, was given the longest sentence yet under Hong Kong’s controversial national security laws, which were introduced in 2020 after a period of city-wide protests. The UK government has condemned his imprisonment as “a death sentence” for the media mogul, while other countries including Japan have also spoken out.
Monday’s sentence represents an effort by Beijing to remove what it sees as a destabilizing presence, but also the failure of foreign governments – particularly the United Kingdom, of which Mr Lai is a citizen – to secure either a more lenient sentence or his release.
Lai was arrested just two months after this photo was taken in June 2020 (AFP/Getty)
Mr Lai has already spent five years behind bars for his role in Hong Kong’s pro-democracy protests in 2019, but only two of those have been counted as time already served, meaning he will not leave prison under his current sentence under 2044. He would be 96.
The ruling came just days after Sir Keir Starmer flew to China for the first trip to the country by a UK leader in eight years, amid pressure from human rights groups to press for the British citizen’s release.
When he concluded his trip on January 31, Mr Starmer said he raised the case during his meeting with Xi Jinping and had a “respectful” discussion about his imprisonment in the former British colony.
Mr Lai, 77, who founded the Apple Daily newspaper, which was forced to close after a police raid and asset freeze in June 2021, had pleaded not guilty to two counts of conspiracy to collude with foreign forces, and one count of conspiracy to publish seditious material.
But after a two-year trial, three judges returned a guilty verdict, with Judge Esther Toh saying Mr Lai’s actions left “no doubt” that he had “harbored resentment” for the Chinese government.
She said the court was satisfied that Lai was the “mastermind” of conspiracies against the Chinese government and that his evidence was sometimes contradictory, inconsistent and unreliable.
Who is Jimmy Lai?
Born in mainland China, Mr Lai fled to Hong Kong aged 12 by stowing away on a fishing boat, where he began working as a child laborer in a garment factory.
He built his fortune through the Giordano fashion empire, before becoming an outspoken advocate of democracy after the Tiananmen Square massacre of 1989, when hundreds, if not thousands, of protesters fighting for political reforms in Beijing were killed.
In 1994, Mr Lai became a full British citizen. Although he has never held a Chinese or Hong Kong passport, he is considered a Chinese citizen by the Hong Kong authorities.
Mr Lai started producing the Chinese-language, pro-democracy newspaper Apple Daily before the handover of Hong Kong in 1997 from the UK to China, as he aimed to maintain freedom of speech in the territory. The paper was openly critical of the Chinese government.
Hong Kong pro-democracy media mogul Jimmy Lai, 72, poses during an interview with AFP at the Next Digital offices in Hong Kong (AFP/Getty)
Why was he in prison?
A well-known pro-democracy campaigner, Mr Lai was known to Chinese authorities before the 2019 protests in Hong Kong, sparked by Beijing’s growing crackdown on wide-ranging freedoms through the national security law.
Mr Lai described the legislation as a “death knell for Hong Kong”, and his Apple Daily newspaper was critical of the reforms while supportive of the protesters.
On 10 August 2020, Mr Lai was arrested together with his sons on charges of collusion with foreign forces and fraud. Later that year he became the first high-profile figure to be indicted for allegedly conspiring and conspiring with foreign forces to endanger national security, under the new legislation.
He has since been charged and banned over separate cases of unlawful assembly and other crimes related to pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong.
On December 15, Mr. Lai was found guilty on multiple charges of sedition and foreign collusion, in a watershed moment for the city’s draconian national security laws and sliding press freedoms.
The judges saw Mr Lai as the orchestrator of a campaign aimed at pressuring foreign governments to impose sanctions on Hong Kong and China, allegedly with the aim of bringing about the “downfall” of the ruling Communist Party. Lai denied all the charges.
The sentence of February 9 welcomed the legal saga that spanned almost five years. Three judges handpicked by Hong Kong’s leadership sentenced Mr Lai to 20 years in prison on national security charges.
Mr Lai’s sentence of 20 years was in the harshest “range” of 10 years to life imprisonment for crimes of a “serious nature” and is the most severe sentence given so far under the new laws.
The three judges said Mr Lai’s sentence was strengthened by the fact that he was the “mastermind” and driving force behind “persistent” foreign collusion conspiracies.
Lai’s health is failing
Mr Lai spent much of his imprisonment in solitary confinement – and his son has spoken openly about fears for his health.
The millionaire’s son, Sebastien Lai, claimed last year that his father, who suffers from diabetes, had lost a significant amount of weight and that he was deprived of independent medical care.
Jimmy Lai’s son Sebastien struggled with his father’s care (AFP via Getty Images)
Mr Lai’s lawyer, Robert Pang, told the court that he had experienced some episodes where he felt like he was collapsing and had “palpitations” in his heart, which led the court to adjourn proceedings and order him to be given a heart monitor and medication.
The Committee for Freedom in Hong Kong Foundation, a non-profit advocacy organization based in the United States, said Mr. Lai was an iconic figure in the battle between those who uphold democratic values and Hong Kong’s authoritarian government.
Responding to his conviction in December, its director in the UK and Europe Mark Sabah said: “The trial against Jimmy Lai was a grotesque exercise in legal subversion and cylinder – a show trial masquerading as justice. But what has actually been exposed is the complete and utter destruction of Hong Kong’s reputation as a global legal centre.
“My father was treated inhumanely,” said his son, Sebastien Lai The Independent. “But he is defiant and strong. It is ridiculous that in his display of bravery, the prime minister [Sir Keir] he will not meet me,” he added.