{"id":114650,"date":"2026-02-09T11:55:22","date_gmt":"2026-02-09T11:55:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/?p=114650"},"modified":"2026-02-09T11:55:22","modified_gmt":"2026-02-09T11:55:22","slug":"hong-kong-pro-democracy-tycoon-jimmy-lai-gets-20-years-in-jail","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/?p=114650","title":{"rendered":"Hong Kong pro-democracy tycoon Jimmy Lai gets 20 years in jail"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Jimmy Lai, Hong Kong\u2019s pro-democracy media tycoon, has been jailed for 20 years for colluding with foreign forces under the city\u2019s\u00a0controversial national security law.<\/p>\n

Rights groups called it a death sentence for the 78-year-old, whose family has raised concerns about his health, but Hong Kong\u2019s leader said it was \u201cdeeply gratifying\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"Hong<\/figure>\n

This is the harshest punishment to be handed down under the law, which China imposed after huge protests in 2019 demanding more freedom, and defends as essential for the city\u2019s stability.<\/p>\n

Lai, a British citizen, is the most prominent of the hundreds arrested under the law. A fierce critic of China, he often wielded his paper, Apple Daily, as a tool of protest.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is incredibly heartbreaking,\u201d Lai\u2019s son, Sebastien, told the BBC\u2019s Today programme, adding that he had repeatedly raised Lai\u2019s imprisonment with the UK government but \u201cobviously my father is still in prison\u201d.<\/p>\n

Sebastien Lai and others have criticised Prime Minister Keir Starmer\u2019s recent visit to China as a wasted opportunity.<\/p>\n

The sentence \u201csignifies the total destruction of the Hong Kong legal system and the end of justice\u201d, Lai\u2019s son Sebastien said.<\/p>\n

Hong Kong authorities and China\u2019s foreign ministry, however, insist the Lai\u2019s sentencing demonstrates the city\u2019s rule of law. In sentencing Lai, the judges condemned his \u201cserious and grave criminal conduct\u201d and said he was involved in conspiracies that were of the \u201cmost serious\u201d category.<\/p>\n

On Monday morning, ahead of sentencing, there was a heavy police presence around the court.<\/p>\n

But there were also throngs of Lai\u2019s supporters, some of them having camped out for days hoping to get inside for his sentencing.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just wish to greet Mr Lai in person in court\u2026 That\u2019s all I ask for, because I think it will be the last time I see him,\u201d said one supporter, who said he\u2019d stood in line since Thursday night.<\/p>\n

Inside, Lai, who wore a white jacket and black glasses, smiled brightly at his family and other supporters. He nodded calmly when his sentence was announced, while some members of the public were heard sobbing. His wife Teresa held back tears as she left the court.<\/p>\n

Lai, who was convicted of fraud and unauthorised assemblies in an earlier case, has already been in jail for more than five years.<\/p>\n

Six former Apple Daily executives and two activists were also sentenced on Monday under the national security law, with terms ranging from six years and three months to 10 years.<\/p>\n

Lai has always denied the charges against him, saying he was advocating for what he believed were Hong Kong\u2019s values, such as rule of law and free speech.<\/p>\n

The case hinges on a meeting Lai had with the US\u2019 then Vice-President Mike Pence and then secretary of state Mike Pompeo at the height of the 2019 protests to discuss the situation in Hong Kong.<\/p>\n

But when he\u00a0testified in November, Lai said he had \u201cnever\u201d used his foreign contacts to influence foreign policy on Hong Kong, adding that he was \u201cjust relaying\u201d the situation to them.<\/p>\n

Rights groups, however, have denounced the sentence as \u201cdraconian\u201d and \u201cegregious\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cToday\u2019s egregious decision is the final nail in the coffin for freedom of the press in Hong Kong,\u201d said Jodie Ginsberg, from the Committee to Protect Journalists.<\/p>\n

She called on the international community to \u201cstep up its pressure\u201d to free Lai \u201cif we want press freedom to be respected anywhere in the world\u201d.<\/p>\n

Lai\u2019s case \u201cshows the Chinese government\u2019s determination to crush independent journalism and silence anyone who dares to criticise the Communist Party\u201d, said Human Rights Watch\u2019s Asia director Elaine Pearson.<\/p>\n

In his\u00a0last interview as a free man\u00a0in 2020, Lai told the BBC \u201cI got everything I have because of [Hong Kong]\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf this is payback time, this is my redemption,\u201d said Lai, who was then out on bail.<\/p>\n

Born in the Chinese city of Guangzhou, Lai was 12 when he arrived in Hong Kong as a stowaway on a fishing boat. He started working menial jobs and eventually founded a multi-million dollar empire that included the clothing brand Giordano.<\/p>\n

Lai began a new journey as a vocal democracy activist after China\u2019s crackdown on pro-democracy protesters in Beijing\u2019s Tiananmen Square in 1989.<\/p>\n

He went on to launch pro-democracy news outlets like Apple Daily and Next magazine, while regularly participating in demonstrations.<\/p>\n

Lai\u2019s family and lawyers have also urged the world to call for his release.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow that this sham trial is finally over, we call on leaders from around the world to speak with one voice in their demand for China to free Jimmy Lai so he can come home to his family in London at last,\u201d Caoilfhionn Gallagher KC told the BBC.<\/p>\n

Gallagher leads Lai\u2019s international legal team but was not allowed to defend him in court.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Jimmy Lai, Hong Kong’s pro-democracy media tycoon, has been jailed for 20 years for colluding with foreign forces under the city’s\u00a0controversial national security law.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":114651,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_2277560469115098_106292521332774":"","twitter_aToxNzczMzI3Njk4OTg4ODUxMjAxOw==_1773327698988851200":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13005,1910,16622,117,10,9,16623],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-114650","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-hong-kong","category-international","category-jimmy-lai","category-news","category-politics","category-popular","category-tycoon"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114650","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=114650"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114650\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/114651"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=114650"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=114650"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=114650"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}