Hong Kong court hands down guilty verdict in Jimmy Lai’s trial

Hong Kong: A Hong Kong court handed down a guilty verdict Monday in the landmark national security trial of Jimmy Lai, a media tycoon and pro-democracy activist whose case highlights shrinking tolerance for dissent in the city.

Officials in Hong Kong and mainland China had cast Lai, 78, as the mastermind of anti-government demonstrations that engulfed the former British colony in 2019, posing a serious challenge to Beijing’s authority. Prosecutors said he colluded with foreign governments, including the United States, to target China and Hong Kong with sanctions.

Lai pleaded not guilty to two counts of “conspiracy to collude with foreign forces,” an offense that can be punished by up to life in prison, and not guilty to a count of conspiracy to publish seditious material in Apple Daily, the now-shuttered Chinese-language newspaper he founded in 1995. On Monday, a court found him guilty on all three counts.

His legal team argued that his calls for sanctions ended when the 2020 national security law took effect.

Hong Kong’s “one country two systems” legal framework is meant to guarantee the territory some autonomy from Beijing and freedom of speech until 2047. But critics say the case shows how the framework has been undercut by two national security laws — one imposed by Beijing in 2020, the other introduced by the Hong Kong government last year — that were responses to the protests.

In 2022, a Hong Kong court sentenced Lai to more than five years in prison for fraud, saying he had violated the terms of a lease agreement related to Apple Daily, a persistent critic of Beijing.

Here’s what else to know:

Local politics: Monday’s verdict landed at an especially sensitive political moment in Hong Kong, where an apartment complex blaze last month killed at least 160 people. The national security police have made at least a dozen arrests since the fire and have been on heightened alert for what they say are “anti-China forces” seeking to exploit the disaster to undermine social stability.

Health concerns Lai’s family says his health has been deteriorating as a result of his imprisonment in solitary confinement. Hong Kong officials say he requested to be held there, and that he is receiving “adequate and comprehensive” medical care.

Trump’s response: President Donald Trump appealed directly to China’s top leader, Xi Jinping, for the media mogul’s release during a meeting in October, Lai’s foreign legal team said. But Trump, who has recently softened his posture toward China, may be increasingly reluctant to press Lai’s case with Xi. It is also unclear if China would be interested in brokering a diplomatic deal for Lai’s release, potentially on medical grounds.