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Hong Kong's Jimmy Lai Gets 20 Years in Prison for National Security Crimes
Jimmy Lai was convicted of colluding with foreign forces and sedition under Hong Kong's national security law and has spent over 1,800 days in custody, court documents show.
- On Monday, February 9, 2026, Jimmy Lai was sentenced to 20 years in prison at West Kowloon Law Courts, with 18 years to be served consecutively with a separate case.
- In December, judges found Jimmy Lai guilty of conspiring to collude with foreign forces and publish seditious material, determining he aimed to destabilize the Chinese Communist Party, prosecutors said.
- After a 156-day trial, Lai spent 52 days giving evidence, facing judges hand-picked to preside over national security cases, and was denied his first choice of lawyer, according to his legal team and lawyer Robert Pang.
- The sentence could heighten diplomatic tensions as the Committee to Protect Journalists condemned the verdict and Keir Starmer, British Prime Minister, urged Lai's release while press freedom NGOs and western states criticised it.
- The closure of Apple Daily followed police raids and an asset freeze forcing its June 2021 shutdown, while Reporters Without Borders linked a 68-place press-freedom drop to this case.
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Hong Kong media entrepreneur and democracy activist Jimmy Lai has been sentenced to 20 years in prison. A court found the 78-year-old guilty of "collaborating with foreign forces" and "sedition".
·Hamburg, Germany
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A court in China-ruled Hong Kong sentenced Jimmy Lai, a former pro-democracy media mogul and fierce critic of Beijing, to 20 years in prison on Monday under a national security law imposed by China that has effectively silenced dissent in the city.
·Estonia
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78-year-old Jimmy Lai has been given a longer prison sentence. His trial has been called politically motivated.
·Copenhagen, Denmark
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Lai, 78, was arrested in 2020 under China's then-new national security law.
·Netherlands
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Coverage Details
Total News Sources76
Leaning Left21Leaning Right8Center26Last UpdatedBias Distribution47% Center
Bias Distribution
- 47% of the sources are Center
47% Center
L 38%
C 47%
15%
Factuality
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