The justice of Hong Kong declared the activist and media mogul guilty on Monday Jimmy Laï charges against him of sedition and conspiracy to act against the authorities, for which he could be sentenced to life imprisonment.
The verdict against Lai, aged 78, also extends to the ‘Apple Daily’ newspaper, after two years of a trial that sparked internal and external controversy. According to the judges, Lai and his media were accustomed to facilitate “interference” from third countries and “exert pressure” it is up to them to impose sanctions against the Chinese and Hong Kong authorities.
The opponent had also been accused of ““incitement to hatred” against the authorities and has been imprisoned for five years since his arrest, which took place in December 2020 under the controversial national security law, promoted by Beijing to criminalize issues such as sedition or foreign interference in Hong Kong.
One of the judges in the case insisted that Lai’s testimony is ‘evasive’ and ‘unreliable’while likening his statements to those that could have been made by an “American who urged Russia to overthrow the United States government”, according to information from the HKFP news portal.
In April 2021, it was convicted of participating in an unauthorized demonstrationin a case that led to prison sentences against several other opposition representatives.
Lai thus became one of the symbols of the persecution against the political opposition in Hong Kongwhere the echoes of the massive protests against the government of Carrie Lam which began in 2019 still resonate. The mobilization was unprecedented since the United Kingdom ceded sovereignty of the territory to China in 1997.
About The Author
