HONG KONG MEDIA TYCOON AND PRO-DEMOCRACY CAMPAIGNER, 78, FACES LIFE IN PRISON AFTER 'SHAM' TRIAL

Hong Kong pro-democracy campaigner and British citizen Jimmy Lai could face life in jail tomorrow as he is sentenced following his conviction on national security charges.

The 78-year-old founder of the now-shut Apple Daily Newspaper has been locked up since 2020, prompting a backlash over the ‘erosion of political freedoms’ in the former British colony under a Beijing-backed crackdown.

Mr Lai’s son has joined campaigners in criticising Sir Keir Starmer for failing to do more to push for his release during his controversial trip to China last month.

Now pro-China politicians have called for the former media tycoon to be ‘severely’ punished today, branding him a ‘pawn’ working for the country’s enemies.

Mr Lai and his newspaper backed pro-democracy protests in 2019 and branded a new Beijing-backed national security law ‘a death knell for Hong Kong’.

But after a trial lasting nearly two years he was found guilty in December of two charges of conspiracy to collude with foreign forces.

Mr Lai – accused by Hong Kong prosecutors of being a mastermind behind the 2019 protests, and a conspirator for advocating for sanctions against and China – was also convicted of conspiracy to publish seditious material.

However the process has been condemned by the British government as politically motivated, while UK Parliamentarians branded it a 'sham' trial.

His health is now said to be deteriorating as he is kept in solitary confinement.

Ahead of his sentencing, Hong Kong law-maker Ray Wong Wing-wai accused Mr Lai of having ‘long acted as an agent and pawn for anti-China forces’.

‘Punishing him severely in accordance with the law is not only the will of the people but also a requirement of the rule of law,’ he wrote on Facebook.

But Aleksandra Bielakowska, of press freedom advocacy group Reporters Without Borders, said: ‘The eyes of the world will be on Hong Kong.

‘The outcome will resonate far beyond Jimmy Lai himself, sending a decisive signal about the future of press freedom in the territory.’

Sir Keir said he held a ‘respectful’ discussion of Mr Lai’s plight when he met President Xi Jinping in Beijing last month.

But the PM – dubbed Kowtow Keir for allowing Beijing to build a mega-embassy in London – has faced accusations he ought to have extracted greater concessions in return for the deal.

Saying time was running out for his father, Sebastien Lai last week told MPs: ‘If it is so important then surely there should be some conditionalities put on my father’s release.

‘The trip was a big thing to have been given away, the embassy as well.’

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2026-02-08T15:57:25Z