Hong Kong Court Convicts Jimmy Lai on Collusion and Sedition Charges Under National Security Law

Overnight, a line of people stretched more than a block outside Hong Kong's High Court, some of them with camping gear, all of them hoping for one of the 507 tickets to the courtroom. By Monday they had their answer to what the day would hold: the court found Jimmy Lai guilty.

Lai, the founder of the now-shuttered Apple Daily newspaper, was convicted of conspiracy to collude with foreign forces and conspiracy to publish seditious material. Both charges fall under the national security law that Beijing imposed after the 2019 pro-democracy protests, and the law carries a possible sentence of life in prison. He had faced three charges in all, one of conspiracy to publish seditious material and two of conspiracy to collude with foreign forces, and had pleaded not guilty to each.

Judge Esther Toh read the findings to a packed courtroom. She said there was no doubt that Lai had harboured resentment and hatred of China for many of his adult years. Lai, wearing a pale green jumper and a grey jacket, sat with his arms folded. Two other judges, Alex Lee and Susana D'Almada Remedios, heard the case with her. Police were monitoring the area around the courthouse.

The trial began in December 2023 and is the highest-profile use so far of the security law in the former British colony, which reverted to Chinese rule in 1997. Beijing regards Lai as a mastermind of the 2019 protests and as a conspirator who advocated U.S. sanctions against Hong Kong and the mainland. His supporters regard him as a freedom fighter. Lai is one of the most prominent critics of the Communist Party leadership, and he has faced a series of legal cases, including others under the security legislation.

He is 78 and has already spent five years in jail awaiting the outcome. His family says his health has worsened after more than 1,800 days in solitary confinement, and that he suffers from diabetes, high blood pressure and heart palpitations. A pre-sentencing hearing, at which he can plead for leniency, is set for January 12, and sentencing will come at a later date. His lawyer, Steven Kwan, said Lai will decide whether to appeal after he is sentenced.

The reaction was divided along familiar lines. The United States and Britain, along with rights groups, say the prosecution is politically motivated and have called for Lai's immediate release. U.S. President Donald Trump raised the case with Xi Jinping in a meeting in October and has said he would do his utmost to "save" Lai. Beh Lih Yi, Asia-Pacific director of the Committee to Protect Journalists, called the verdict a sham conviction and a disgraceful act of persecution, saying Lai's only crime was running a newspaper and defending democracy. Reporters Without Borders also called the trial a sham. The Chinese and Hong Kong governments maintain that Lai received a fair trial, that the law treats everyone equally, and that no freedom is absolute when national security is at stake. Chinese authorities have rejected accusations that they are eroding the city's rule of law.

The verdict arrives at a heavy moment. On Sunday, the Democratic Party, the city's largest opposition party, voted to disband under pressure from Beijing, capping a year in which Hong Kong's democratic opposition all but disappeared. Residents are also mourning a fire last month that killed at least 160 people in a residential complex, among the deadliest such blazes in recent years worldwide. Chinese national security authorities have warned they will crack down on any "anti-China" individuals who try to use the fire to plunge the city back into the chaos of 2019.

The next date to watch is January 12, when Lai's mitigation hearing could shape a sentence that may run to life, and after which a decision on appeal will follow.