A court docket in Hong Kong has sentenced pro-democracy media tycoon Jimmy Lai to twenty years in jail following his conviction below a sweeping nationwide safety regulation imposed by Beijing.
A abstract doc by the court docket on Monday mentioned 18 years of Lai’s sentence needs to be served consecutively to the prevailing five-year jail time period in his fraud case.
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The 78-year-old founding father of the now-defunct Apple Every day has already spent greater than 5 years behind bars and was discovered responsible in December on two counts of international collusion and one rely of seditious publication.
Given his age, the jail time period might preserve him behind bars for the remainder of his life.
Forward of the sentencing, rights teams and Western governments referred to as for Lai’s launch, with some denouncing the case as “nothing however a charade”.
Lai’s household, lawyer, supporters and former colleagues have warned that he might die in jail as he suffers from health conditions, together with coronary heart palpitations and hypertension.
Earlier than Lai left the courtroom, he regarded critical, as some individuals within the public gallery cried.
Along with Lai, six former senior Apple Every day staffers, an activist and a paralegal had been additionally sentenced on Monday.
His co-defendants acquired jail phrases of between six years and three months, and 10 years.
The convicted journalists are writer Cheung Kim-hung, affiliate writer Chan Pui-man, editor-in-chief Ryan Legislation, govt editor-in-chief Lam Man-chung, govt editor-in-chief chargeable for English information Fung Wai-kong and editorial author Yeung Ching-kee.
Forward of the sentencing, the Committee to Defend Journalists mentioned in an announcement that Lai’s trial “has been nothing however a charade from the beginning and reveals whole contempt for Hong Kong legal guidelines which might be supposed to guard press freedom”.
Reporters With out Borders mentioned the sentencing “will resonate far past Jimmy Lai himself, sending a decisive sign about the way forward for press freedom within the territory”.
Beijing has dismissed such criticism as makes an attempt to smear Hong Kong’s judicial system, whereas Hong Kong authorities preserve that Lai’s case “has nothing to do with freedom of speech and of the press”.
Lai was one of many first outstanding figures to be arrested below the safety regulation, imposed in 2020. Inside a yr, a few of Apple Every day’s senior journalists had been additionally arrested. Police raids, prosecutions and a freeze of its property compelled the newspaper’s closure in June 2021.
The ultimate version bought one million copies.
Lai’s sentencing might heighten Beijing’s diplomatic tensions with international governments. His conviction has drawn criticism from the UK and the USA.
UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer mentioned he had raised Lai’s case throughout his assembly with Chinese language President Xi Jinping in Beijing final month, including that the dialogue was “respectful”.
Lai is a British citizen.
US President Donald Trump mentioned he felt “so badly” after the decision, noting that he spoke to Xi about Lai and “requested [Xi] to contemplate his launch”.
Lai’s daughter, Claire, instructed The Related Press information company that she hopes authorities see the knowledge in releasing her father, a Roman Catholic. She mentioned their religion rests in God. “We are going to by no means cease combating till he’s free,” she mentioned.
Forward of the sentencing, Hong Kong Free Press reported that police detained a girl outdoors the West Kowloon court docket after discovering an Apple Every day keychain in her possession.
At the least two different activists had been additionally searched, together with Tsang Kin-shing, a member of the now-disbanded League of Social Democrats.
The sentencing comes towards the backdrop of heightened restrictions on Hong Kong media.
The Hong Kong Journalists Affiliation mentioned in 2024 that dozens of journalists confronted “systematic and organised” harassment and intimidation, together with leaked private info and demise threats.
In accordance with Reporters With out Borders, not less than 900 Hong Kong journalists misplaced their jobs within the 4 years following the enactment of the nationwide safety regulation within the metropolis.
