Jimmy Lai to be sentenced after national security conviction

Jimmy Lai, a British citizen and founder of the now-defunct Apple Daily newspaper, is due to be sentenced after a months-long trial that ended with convictions on national security offences. He was found guilty last December of two counts of conspiracy to collude with foreign forces and one count of publishing seditious materials.

One of the judges wrote: “There is no doubt in our mind that the first defendant never wavered in his intention to destabilise the governance of the CCP [Chinese Communist party], and despite the enactment of the national security law, he was intent on continuing, though in a less explicit way.” Lai was arrested in August 2020 after Beijing imposed the national security law in response to the 2019 protests.

The case has drawn criticism from the United States, the United Kingdom and the European Union. In December, US president Donald Trump urged Chinese president Xi Jinping to “consider” releasing Lai, saying: “I feel so badly… He’s an older man and he’s not well.

China, Beijing

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