Media mogul Jimmy Lai (C), seen here in February 2021, was sentenced to 20 years in prison on Monday. File Photo by Jerome Favre/EPA-EFE
Feb. 8 (UPI) — A Hong Kong court on Monday sentenced Jimmy Lai, a prominent pro-democracy figure and the founder of the now-defunct progressive Apple Daily, to 20 years in prison on charges stemming from protests that brought the Chinese territory to a standstill in 2019 and 2020.
Lai, 78, has been in police custody since the summer of 2020 and was convicted in mid-December following a 156-day trial that tested three charges that alleged he and his publication produced articles that encouraged foreign countries to sanction the city.
“Having stepped back and taking a global view of the total sentence for Lai’s serious and grave criminal conduct, applying the totality principle, we are satisfied that the total sentence for Lai in the present case should be 20 years’ imprisonment,” the High Court of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region said in its order.
The sentencing is expected to draw staunch criticism from human rights and pro-democracy advocates and condemnation from Western nations who have denounced his December conviction, trial and the National Security Law he was charged under.
“Today is a very dark day — for Jimmy Lai and his family, for his friends, supporters and advocates worldwide, and for all who cherished the rights and freedoms that were once enjoyed by Hong Kongers, but are now dismantled by the draconian National Security Law imposed on the city by Beijing,” Benedict Rogers, co-founder and chair of the Trustees of Hong Kong Watch, a Britain-registered charity, said in a statement.
“This outcome was predetermined. The trial of Mr. Lai was never fair or just, and never in line with the common-law protections central to Hong Kong’s judicial system prior to 2020.”
This is a developing story.