HK court convicts prodemocracy media mogul in nat’l security case
A Hong Kong court found on Monday prodemocracy media mogul Jimmy Lai guilty of colluding with foreign forces under a Beijing-decreed national security law, with a prospect of facing life in prison despite his worsening health.
The high-profile trial has been viewed by many as a testament to civil rights in the former British colony following its hand over to Communist-led China in 1997. US President Donald Trump reportedly spoke to Chinese President Xi Jinping about Lai’s release during their meeting in October in South Korea.
Esther Toh, one of the three presiding judges of the case, said on Monday that the court was satisfied that there was “indisputable evidence” that Lai, the 78-year-old founder of the now-shuttered Apple Daily, was “the mastermind” behind the conspiracy.
Lai requested foreign countries to impose sanctions or take “hostile activities” against China and Hong Kong, she said.
Xi ‘ouster’
“He hoped for a regime in China so that the Chinese Communist Party would no longer be the ruling party or at least the stepping down or removal of President Xi,” Toh said. “His main aim was to gather support from the US and the Western world to destabilize the Chinese Communist Party.”
The court will hear the mitigation on Jan. 12 before deciding the penalty. Lai, who has been detained since December 2020, has pleaded not guilty to charges of conspiracy to collude with foreign forces and publish seditious material in violation of the national security law.
Lai was arrested by Hong Kong’s national security police in August 2020, becoming one of the first people charged under the sweeping legislation introduced by Beijing in June 2020 to quell months of antigovernment protests that broke out in the semiautonomous Chinese region in 2019.
‘A sham’
Six Apple Daily senior executives, who were held alongside Lai, have pleaded guilty.
Human rights organizations such as Reporters Without Borders have described the five-year trial as “a sham” and demanded Lai be freed immediately. Britain, where Lai is a national, has called it “politically motivated.”
Earlier, Lai’s family said he experienced significant weight loss, as well as deterioration of his hearing and vision. The family says that his teeth are decaying and his nails are falling off. He also has diabetes and hypertension.
Solitary confinement
His daughter Claire Lai wrote to the Washington Post in early December that scheduled visits were at one point denied by authorities last year because her father was “too unwell” and that he had developed heart problems while in prison.
“Unless something changes, he is very likely to become a martyr for freedom,” she pleaded. “If released, he would leave Hong Kong and pose no threat to the regime.”
Concerns over Lai’s health heightened during the delivery of closing arguments in his trial in August, with the hearing briefly delayed so that he could be provided with medication and a heart monitor.
Sebastien Lai, one of his sons, earlier warned that his father’s time was “running out,” saying he was being held in solitary confinement in a prison cell deprived of natural light for more than 23 hours a day.
Hong Kong authorities maintained that Lai is being given a “fair trial” and the solitary arrangement had “all along been made at his own request.”
