US EditionHong Kong media tycoon Jimmy Lai found guilty on all charges in landmark national security trial
Jimmy Lai, founder of Apple Daily, was convicted for colluding with foreign forces and sedition under Hong Kong's National Security Law, facing possible life imprisonment.
- On Monday, December 15, the High Court found Jimmy Lai guilty of collusion and sedition at West Kowloon Law Courts Building, with sentencing upcoming.
- Prosecutors argued Jimmy Lai used Apple Daily, now-shuttered newspaper, to publish seditious articles and lobby foreign governments for sanctions, with this campaign continuing before and after the National Security Law enactment.
- The Court relied on contemporaneous WhatsApp and Signal messages, six accomplice prosecution witnesses, and found none discredited despite extensive cross-examination.
- Sentencing is expected early next year; Western governments and rights groups called the trial politically motivated and demanded Lai's immediate release, while John Lee, Hong Kong chief executive, welcomed the verdict.
- The ruling bookends a year that saw the Democratic Party disband, amid Apple Daily's closure and the NSL's nearly 100% conviction rate drawing international scrutiny of judicial independence.
259 Articles
259 Articles
Hong Kong media tycoon Jimmy Lai found guilty under national security law
After two years of trial, Lai is found guilty of colluding with foreign forcesOriginally published on Global VoicesJimmy Lai in 2020. Photo: HKFP. This article was first published in Hong Kong Free Press on December 15, 2025. An edited version is republished on Global Voices under a content partnership agreement. Hong Kong media mogul Jimmy Lai has been found guilty of collusion and sedition in his national security trial. The maximum sentence …
Hong Kong, Once Free, Now Suppresses Any Dissent – The American Spectator | USA News and Politics
As expected, Beijing’s Hong Kong enforcers have convicted former publisher Jimmy Lai of violating China’s National Security Law. Standing up for the territory’s traditional liberties led to charges of sedition and collusion with foreign enemies. The 78-year-old Lai, who chose not to flee the so-called Special Administrative Region, faces a possible life sentence, a sentence he,now appears likely to serve. Lai’s conviction offers further evidence…
Hong Kong descends into spiral of paranoia
Hong Kong, December 16 (ANI): Hong Kong's court on December 15 delivered a guilty verdict against the media mogul Jimmy Lai, editor of the former Apple Daily newspaper. The verdict came five years after Lai was detained and charged with sedition and two cases of collusion with foreign forces.Lai is one of the highest-profile people netted under Hong Kong's draconian national security legislation. The National Se
The Diplomat
The Hamilton SpectatorHong Kong Pro-Democracy Publisher Convicted of Sedition in Major Blow to Press Freedom
Jimmy Lai and his Apple Daily once symbolized Hong Kong’s free press. His conviction under the National Security Law is the death knell for that democratic ideal.
Jimmy Lai’s Hong Kong show trial shames Britain
Nobody seriously expected Jimmy Lai to be cleared of the charges he faced in Hong Kong. National security trials in the territory, which can be held without a jury in front of a specially selected panel of judges, have a conviction rate of more than 95 per cent. It was still shocking, however, to see Hong Kong’s most famous media tycoon, who is 78 and a British citizen, pronounced guilty on 15 December of foreign collusion and conspiring to comm…
In Hong Kong media mogul Jimmy Lai’s conviction, role of China’s National Security Law
The law is among the various institutional changes that China has introduced to the city in recent years. Lai’s trial became a test of whether editorial direction could constitute criminal conspiracy.
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