Hong Kong media tycoon gets 20 years jail, journalists also imprisoned
Hong Kong’s crackdown on dissent has claimed one of its most high-profile targets, with media tycoon and pro-democracy figure Jimmy Lai sentenced to 20 years in prison under the city’s national security laws.
Lai, 78, founded the now-shuttered Apple Daily, once one of Hong Kong’s most influential newspapers and a vocal supporter of the city’s pro-democracy movement.
The paper was forced to shut down in 2021, a year after Beijing imposed sweeping security legislation that effectively outlawed political opposition.
Lai (above) was found guilty in December of sedition and conspiring with foreign powers, despite maintaining his innocence throughout the trial.
The most serious of the offences - collusion with external forces - carries a possible life sentence under Hong Kong’s national security regime.
The court also handed down lengthy prison terms to six former Apple Daily journalists. Former editor-in-chief Lai Wai Kwong, executive editor-in-chief Lam Man-chung and editorial writer Fung Wai-kong were each jailed for 10 years.
Publisher Cheung Kim Hung was sentenced to six years and nine months, associate publisher Chan Pui-man to seven years, and editorial writer Yeung Ching-kee to seven years and three months.
Two former activists connected to the overseas advocacy group Stand with Hong Kong were likewise imprisoned, despite testifying against Lai in exchange for reduced sentences. Chan Tsz-Wah received six years and three months, while Andy Li was given seven years and three months.
Daily’s rise and fall
Apple Daily rose to prominence in the 2010s as mass pro-democracy protests swept Hong Kong. That movement was decisively crushed in June 2020, when the national security law came into force.
Lai was arrested two months later and charged under the legislation.
Reacting to the verdict, Lai’s daughter Claire was reported as stating that the punishment was “heartbreakingly cruel”, warning that her father’s deteriorating health raises the risk that he could “die a martyr behind bars”.
Condemning the sentence, Reporters Without Borders dubbed it the “curtain falling on press freedom” in Hong Kong.
“… This court decision underscores the complete collapse of press freedom in Hong Kong and the authorities’ profound contempt for independent journalism,” it was quoted as saying by The Guardian.
Human Rights Watch said Lai’s 20-year sentence was “effectively a death sentence”.
“A sentence of this magnitude is both cruel and profoundly unjust. Lai’s years of persecution show the Chinese government’s determination to crush independent journalism and silence anyone who dares to criticise the Communist Party,” it said.
Amnesty International condemned the verdict as “another grim milestone”, saying it underscored Hong Kong’s slide from a rule-of-law city into one governed by fear and intimidation.
State-controlled Chinese media struck a far harsher tone on Friday, branding Lai, who is a British national who arrived in Hong Kong as a child after fleeing mainland China, an “anti-government agitator” and a “traitor”.
