Updated: 08:53 AM Dec 15, 2025 IST — AP
Jimmy Lai, the 78-year-old pro-democracy media figure and outspoken critic of Beijing, was convicted on Monday in a high-profile Hong Kong national security trial that could see him jailed for the rest of his life.
A panel of three government-vetted judges, sitting without a jury, found Lai guilty of conspiring with others to collude with foreign forces to endanger national security and of conspiracy to publish seditious articles. Lai had pleaded not guilty to all counts.
Lai, founder of the now-defunct Apple Daily, was arrested in August 2020 under the national security law Beijing imposed after the large anti-government protests of 2019. He has spent five years in custody, was convicted of several lesser offences during that period, and observers have noted he has appeared frailer and thinner in court.
Family members, including Lai’s wife and son, attended the hearing, as did Hong Kong’s Roman Catholic Cardinal Joseph Zen. Lai pressed his lips and nodded to relatives before being led from the courtroom by guards.
The verdict, reached after a 156-day trial, has been closely watched internationally as a test of press freedom and judicial independence in the former British colony that returned to Chinese rule in 1997. The outcome has diplomatic resonance: U.S. President Donald Trump said he raised the case with China, and U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer said his government is prioritizing efforts to secure Lai’s release. The decision has also drawn attention from the European Union and other observers.
Prosecutors accused Lai of conspiring with senior Apple Daily executives and others to solicit foreign forces to impose sanctions, blockades or other hostile actions against Hong Kong or China. He was convicted on two counts of conspiracy to commit collusion with foreign forces to endanger national security and one count of conspiracy to distribute seditious publications.
Under Hong Kong’s national security law, the collusion charge carries a possible sentence ranging from three years to life, depending on the nature of the offense and the defendant’s role; the sedition charge carries a maximum penalty of two years. A four-day mitigation hearing is scheduled to begin on January 12, when Lai will have the opportunity to argue for a reduced sentence.
Apple Daily was a vocal critic of both the Hong Kong government and the Chinese Communist Party. The paper closed in 2021 after police raided its newsroom, arrested senior staff and froze its assets, effectively forcing its shutdown.
