{"id":37621,"date":"2025-12-15T10:02:31","date_gmt":"2025-12-15T04:17:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/?p=37621"},"modified":"2025-12-15T10:02:31","modified_gmt":"2025-12-15T04:17:31","slug":"hong-kong-media-tycoon-jimmy-lai-convicted-in-landmark-national-security-trial-faces-possible-life-sentence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/hong-kong-media-tycoon-jimmy-lai-convicted-in-landmark-national-security-trial-faces-possible-life-sentence\/","title":{"rendered":"Hong Kong media tycoon Jimmy Lai convicted in landmark national security trial, faces possible life sentence"},"content":{"rendered":"
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CNN:<\/strong> Former Hong Kong media tycoon Jimmy Lai has been found guilty on two national security charges and a lesser sedition charge, in a landmark two-year trial widely viewed as a measure of the city\u2019s shrinking freedoms under Beijing\u2019s rule.<\/p>\n

Self-made billionaire Lai, 78, is one of the highest-profile critics of Beijing charged under the sweeping security law imposed on the semi-autonomous city in 2020 following months of huge and sometimes violent pro-democracy protests.<\/p>\n

He founded Apple Daily, a fiercely pro-democracy tabloid newspaper known for its blistering broadsides against the Chinese Communist Party until its forced closure in 2021.<\/p>\n

Lai now faces possible life in prison. Monday\u2019s verdict marks the end of a tumultuous legal saga that had drawn condemnation from supporters and foreign leaders around the world, including US President Donald Trump \u2013 who had once vowed to \u201cget him out.\u201d<\/p>\n

The imposition of the national security law has transformed Hong Kong, with authorities jailing dozens of political opponents, forcing civil society groups and outspoken media outlets to disband, and transforming the once-freewheeling city into one ruled by \u201cpatriots only.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hong Kong and China\u2019s leaders say it has \u201crestored stability\u201d following the 2019 protests.<\/p>\n

In delivering their verdict, judges said there was \u201cno doubt that (Lai) had harbored his resentment and hatred of the PRC (People\u2019s Republic of China) for many of his adult years.\u201d<\/p>\n

They pointed to Lai\u2019s lobbying of US politicians during Trump\u2019s first term as evidence of sedition and colluding with foreign forces, including his meetings with then-Vice President Mike Pence, then-State Secretary Mike Pompeo, and attempts to meet Trump himself.<\/p>\n

They also pointed to his WhatsApp messages with other pro-democracy activists and Apple Daily leaders, and a New York Times opinion piece he had written in May 2020 \u2013 in which he suggested ways to punish China for its repression of Hong Kong, such as revoking student visas for the children of government officials.<\/p>\n

His urging US officials to take actions against China in the name of helping the Hong Kong public \u201cwould be analogous to the situation where an American national asks for help from Russia to bring down the US Government under the guise of helping the State of California,\u201d the judges said in their ruling.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are satisfied that (Lai) was the mastermind of the conspiracies\u201d laid out in all three charges, they concluded. They added that the evidence showed Lai\u2019s \u201conly intent \u2026 was to seek the downfall of the (Chinese Communist Party).\u201d<\/p>\n

The judges said they would announce the date of his sentencing at a later point. Collusion is punishable by life imprisonment under the security law.<\/p>\n

The judges had earlier warned everyone inside to maintain \u201cabsolute silence\u201d as their verdict was read out.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

CNN: Former Hong Kong media tycoon Jimmy Lai has been found guilty on two national security charges and a lesser sedition charge, in a landmark two-year trial widely viewed as a measure of the city\u2019s shrinking freedoms under Beijing\u2019s rule. Self-made billionaire Lai, 78, is one of the highest-profile critics of Beijing charged under the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":37622,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-37621","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37621"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37621"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37621\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37624,"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37621\/revisions\/37624"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37622"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37621"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37621"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37621"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}