Jimmy Lai walks through the Stanley prison, in Hong Kong, July 28, 2023.
| Photo Credit: AP

To his supporters, former media mogul Jimmy Lai is a fighter for democracy. To his opponents, he’s a traitor to his motherland.

Now, he was convicted in the landmark national security trial, which began in 2023, and could send him to prison for the rest of his life. He was convicted of conspiracies to commit sedition and collusion with foreign forces.

Lai, 78, is an outspoken critic of China’s ruling Communist Party who was arrested in 2020 under a national security law following massive anti-government protests that rocked Hong Kong the year before.

His arrest and the closure of his Apple Daily newspaper, a tabloid-style publication that backed the democracy movement, dealt a blow to free speech in a city that was once a bastion of press freedom in Asia.

The conviction could keep the British citizen in jail for the rest of his life.

Born in mainland China, Lai was just 12 when he arrived in Hong Kong on a fishing boat as a stowaway, hoping for a better life in the then-British colony.

He began working as a child labourer in a glove factory, where he was introduced to the garment industry. He later founded the popular casual wear chain Giordano in 1981.

But a pivotal moment for Lai was the Beijing deadly crackdown on the 1989 student-led pro-democracy protests in Tiananmen Square: His company printed T-shirts in support of the protests and he became interested in media to disseminate information.

He founded Next Magazine in 1990, and five years later, Apple Daily. The news outlet attracted a strong following with its sometimes sensational reports, investigative scoops and short animated video reports. Being openly critical of the Hong Kong and Chinese governments, the newspaper was well-received among pro-democracy readers.

In 1994, he insulted then-Chinese Premier Li Peng, calling him “the son of a turtle egg,” an offensive slur in Chinese culture, after Li justified the Tiananmen crackdown. China pressured the Giordano brand, and Lai had to sell his stake in the company.

His long-time friend Lee Wing-tat, also an activist, said Lai was a firm believer in democracy, freedom and the “small government, big market” economic principle, which emphasises minimal state intervention and free trade.

This was shaped by his childhood experience in mainland China, where his family suffered under the Communist Party’s rule, and his rags-to-riches journey in the city, Mr. Lee said.

Lai organised informal gatherings for pro-democracy lawmakers and scholars to discuss policies over meals in the 1990s, in the hopes of influencing politicians, Lee said.

He also took to the streets, including massive pro-democracy protests in 2014, known as the Umbrella Movement, and made donations to pro-democracy parties, including one that Lee used to chair. His newspaper often urged readers to join protests.

Lai was among the demonstrators in the leaderless anti-government protests in 2019. He met with then-U.S. Vice President Mike Pence and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo at the time to discuss the developments linked to a now-withdrawn bill that sparked the unrest, angering Beijing.

In 2020, China’s national security law for Hong Kong, meant to quell the protests, loomed. In response, Apple Daily launched a campaign encouraging readers to petition U.S. President Donald Trump, during his first term, to “save Hong Kong”.

During his trial, Lai’s Apple Daily executives said he had influenced the newspaper’s coverage, with one saying objections to the petition campaign were brushed aside. Prosecutors accused him of asking staff not to target Mr. Trump, and Lai later testified he hoped the American President could help stop the national security law.

After the law took effect in June 2020, Lai told The Associated Press that “Hong Kong is dead”.

More than a month later, Lai was arrested under the law as police raided Apple Daily‘s building. The operation sent shockwaves through the local press scene. In 2021, arrests of the newspaper’s top executives and freezing of some of its assets forced the publication to cease operation.

Since December 2020, Lai has been in custody, during which he was sentenced to five years and nine months for fraud allegations in a case unrelated to the security law.

During his current trial, prosecutors alleged he had conspired with others to collude with foreign forces and publish seditious materials, saying he had clearly betrayed national interests.

They pointed to Lai’s articles, text messages, social posts and livestream shows. Lai admitted he had advocated for foreign sanctions against China earlier, but stopped once the law kicked in. He argued in court that he wrote without seditious intent.

“For truth prevails in God’s kingdom, and that’s good enough for me,” he said.

The court rejected these arguments, writing in an 855-page verdict that Lai’s campaign against the People’s Republic of China carried on for much of his adult life and continued “in a less explicit way” after the law’s passage.

“There is no doubt that [Lai] had harboured his resentment and hatred of the PRC for many of his adult years,” Juder Esther Toh said, reading from the verdict.

The food lover, who is nicknamed “Fatty Lai”, has shrunk in size while in prison. His lawyer in August said he had experienced heart palpitations, though the government said a medical examination found no abnormalities.

Lai, a Roman Catholic, drew multiple crucifixions behind bars, and his friend Robert Sirico, a U.S.-based priest, received one of the pictures.

Beijing has called Lai “an agent and pawn of the anti-China forces”. But Mr. Sirico said Lai had told him he wanted China to be better and the priest visited mainland China after Lai encouraged him to.

“He had a great love of China,” Mr. Sirico said, pointing to Lai’s art at home and the meals they shared.

In the AP interview in 2020, Lai appeared undaunted.

“If I have to go to prison, I don’t mind. I don’t care,” he said. “It won’t be something I can worry about, I’ll just relax and do what I have to do.”

The signage of Hong Kong’s Final Court of Appeal is seen at the court in Hong Kong Monday, Aug. 12, 2024.
| Photo Credit: AP

Hong Kong’s top court on Monday (August 12, 2024) upheld the convictions of seven of Hong Kong’s most prominent pro-democracy activists over their roles in one of the biggest anti-government protests in 2019.

Jimmy Lai, founder of the now-defunct Apple Daily newspaper; Martin Lee, the founding chairman of the city’s Democratic Party; and five former pro-democracy lawmakers were found guilty in 2021 of organizing and participating in an unauthorized assembly.

Their convictions dealt a blow to the city’s flagging pro-democracy movement during a political crackdown on dissidents following the protests.

Last year, the activists partially won their appeal at a lower court, with their convictions quashed over the charge of organizing an unauthorized assembly. But their convictions over taking part in the assembly were upheld and they continued their legal battle at the city’s top court.

On Monday, judges at the Court of Final Appeal unanimously ruled against their appeal over the remaining convictions.

The defendants previously argued that the trial judge had failed to conduct an “operational proportionality” assessment when convicting them and quoted two non-binding decisions set out by the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom. The defense also suggested the judge should have taken into account that the procession did not become violent.

But Chief Justice Andrew Cheung and Justice Roberto Ribeiro said in their written judgment that the two British cases should not be adopted in the city’s courts because the frameworks for human rights challenges in the two jurisdictions are different.

They ruled that the defendants’ proposition was “unsustainable” and “is contrary to all established principles governing constitutional challenges in Hong Kong.”

“A separate proportionality inquiry in relation to arrest, prosecution, conviction and sentence is inappropriate and un-called for,” they wrote.

After the court handed down its decision, barrister Margaret Ng, one of the defendants, declined to comment before reading the judgment.

“We just want to take this occasion to thank our legal teams, and all the people who have been supporting us all the time,” she said.

The convictions were linked to their involvement in a rally in August 2019 that drew an estimated 1.7 million people onto Hong Kong’s streets to call for greater police accountability and democracy. The march was relatively peaceful compared to other protests that often morphed into violent clashes between police and protesters that year.

Hong Kong, a former British colony, returned to China in 1997. Its mini-constitution, the Basic Law, guarantees its people freedom of assembly.

When sentencing the seven activists in 2021, the trial judge at the District Court ruled that the right to such freedom is not absolute and is subject to restrictions ruled constitutional. She ordered Lai, Lee Cheuk-yan, Leung Kwok-hung and Cyd Ho to be jailed between eight and 18 months. Martin Lee, Ng and Albert Ho were given suspended jail sentences.

When the appellate court partially overturned their convictions in 2023, it quashed part of the sentences for the four who were given jail terms on the record. The decision was made after they already served out their sentences.

Mr. Lai, Mr. Lee Cheuk-yan, Mr. Leung and Albert Ho still remained in custody as they were also prosecuted or convicted under a Beijing-imposed national security law, which critics said has all but wiped out public dissent. Lai was also serving a prison term for a separate fraud case.

The Beijing and Hong Kong governments said the security law was necessary to bring back stability to the city following the protests.

The movement five years ago was the city’s most concerted challenge to the Hong Kong government since the 1997 handover. It waned with massive arrests and exiles of democracy activists, the COVID-19 pandemic and the introduction of the security law.