Hong Kong court convicts Jimmy Lai in national security case

by · UPI

Dec. 14 (UPI) -- A Hong Kong court on Monday convicted Jimmy Lai, one of the city's most prominent pro-democracy figures and the founder of the now-defunct newspaper Apple Daily, in a landmark national security case that stems from months of mass pro-democracy protests that rocked the city in 2019 and 2020.

Lai, 78, whose Chinese name is Lai Chee-ying, was convicted on one count of conspiracy to print, publish, sell or produce seditious material and one count of conspiracy to collude with a foreign country or external elements to endanger national security.

Several companies linked to Apple Daily, including Apple Daily Limited, Apple Daily Printing Limited and AD Internet Limited, were also convicted.

Collusion with foreign forces is an offense punishable by up to life imprisonment under Hong Kong's draconian national security law.

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"Having carefully assessed all the evidence with the law in mind, the Court was satisfied that the prosecution had proved the charges against the defendants beyond any reasonable doubt," the court said in a statement.

The court ruled that articles by Apple Daily were "objectively seditious" and were written with the intent to drag "the HKSAR Government into hatred and contempt and to exciting disaffection against it."

The ruling also said Lai used Apple Daily and his personal influence "to carry out a consistent campaign with a view to undermine the legitimacy or authority" of China's central government, the Hong Kong government and their institutions while "harming the relation between the CPG and the HKSAR Government with the people of Hong Kong."

The conviction is drawing widespread condemnation from human rights, pro-democracy, pro-free speech and civil rights activists and organizations who say the charges were trumped up and the court stacked with pro-China judges.

"Bogus convictions based on bogus charges on a bogus law," Yaqiu Wang, a Chinese human rights and democracy advocate and a fellow at the University of Chicago's Forum for Free Inquiry and Expression, said in a statement on X.

"The Hong Kong and Beijing authorities will face accountability for their cruelty towards Jimmy Lai -- one of the bravest human beings of our time. I hope that day will come soon, and we together will bring it about."

The case stems from mass protests that erupted in the city starting in 2019 against a new extradition law that would have allowed fugitives from mainland justice to be returned to China to face judges under China's communist government.

The rule was seen in the once semi-autonomous Hong Kong as an effort to silence dissent by permitting Chinese dissidents and opponents to be sent to the mainland.

The mass protests were met with violence and mass arrests, and the demonstrations persisted even after the Hong Kong government revoked the law.

In response, China imposed a new, draconian national security law on Hong Kong that went into effect June 30, 2020, which attracted widespread international condemnation for undermining the city's mini constitution, Basic Law, and agreements Beijing made to Britain when the city was returned to Chinese sovereignty in 1997.

Under the new law, people could be charged with widely defined crimes of sedition, subversion, terrorism and working with foreign agencies to undermine China's national security.

Lai was arrested under the national security law and his Apple Daily offices were raided in August 2020, and let out on bail. He was then re-arrested shortly before being formally charged in December of that year. He has been in jail since.

Lai pleaded not guilty to two counts of "conspiracy to collude with foreign forces" and a separate count of conspiracy to publish seditious material in Apple Daily.

"The conviction of Jimmy Lai on bogus charges after five years of solitary confinement is both cruel and a travesty of justice," Human Rights Watch said in a statement in response to the verdict.

"The Chinese and Hong Kong governments should pay a cost for their unrelenting efforts to muzzle Hong Kong's press."