Hong Kong court finds media tycoon and Beijing critic Jimmy Lai guilty of sedition, foreign collusion

Jimmy Lai, the 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.

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 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 offences, and appears to have grown thinner and more frail.

Lai's trial, conducted without a jury, has been closely monitored by the U.S., 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 U.S. to help bring down the Chinese government and had spent years considering what leverage the U.S. could use.

"There is no doubt that the first defendant had harboured 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.

Toh added that the court was satisfied Lai was the "mastermind" of the conspiracies, and the only reasonable inference from the evidence was that Lai's intent was to seek the downfall of the ruling Communist Party, even at the sacrifice of the people of China and Hong Kong.

Among the attendees were Lai's wife and son, and Hong Kong's Roman Catholic Cardinal Joseph Zen. Lai pressed his lips and nodded to his family before being escorted out of the courtroom by guards.

His verdict is also a test for Beijing's diplomatic ties.

U.S. President Donald Trump said he has raised the case with China, and U.K. 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.

Under Hong Kong's sweeping national security law, the collusion charge could result in a sentence ranging from three years in jail to life imprisonment, depending on the offence's nature and his role in it. The sedition charge carries a maximum of two years' imprisonment. A four-day mitigation hearing was set to begin Jan. 12 for Lai to argue for a shorter sentence.

The Apple Daily was a vocal critic of the Hong Kong government and the ruling Chinese Communist Party. It was forced to shut down in 2021 after police raided its newsroom and arrested its senior journalists, with authorities freezing its assets.

During Lai's 156-day trial, prosecutors accused him of conspiring with senior executives of Apple Daily and others to request foreign forces to impose sanctions or blockades and engage in other hostile activities against Hong Kong or China.