Outcry over ‘sham conviction’ of pro-democracy tycoon aged 78

Governments, institutions and rights groups across the world have condemned the conviction of the former pro-democracy media tycoon and British citizen Jimmy Lai in Hong Kong on national security charges.

- Helen Davidson Hong Kong Amy Hawkins Senior China correspondent

In one of the most closely watched rulings since the city’s return to Chinese rule in 1997, the 78-year-old was found guilty in West Kowloon district court yesterday of one count of conspiracy to publish seditious publications and two counts of conspiracy to foreign collusion. The charges were brought under the city’s punitive national security law (NSL), introduced in 2020, and a British colonial-era sedition law that has been used in recent years by authorities.

Soon after the ruling was delivered, rights and press groups decried the verdict as a “sham conviction” and an attack on press freedom.

Britain reiterated its stance that the prosecution was “politically motivated” and called for the immediate release of Lai, who is a British citizen. Lai’s conviction comes just weeks before an expected visit to Beijing by the UK prime minister, Keir Starmer.

Lai faces spending the rest of his life in prison, amid increasing fears about his physical condition. A diabetes sufferer, he is thought to have lost about 10kg in the past year.

Lai has been in jail since late 2020 on remand and serving several protest-related sentences totalling almost 10 years. Yesterday’s conviction, in which judges called him a “mastermind” of conspiracies designed to destabilise the Chinese government, came after a controversial trial that stretched for more than two years.