Hong Kong justices decide to keep Jimmy Lai in jail

Hong Kong’s top court decided Monday to uphold Jimmy Lai and six other pro-democracy activists’ convictions for their campaigning during the anti-government protests that rocked the city in 2019. In a unanimous agreement, the court dismissed the bid to overturn the convictions of the seven activists.  

Among the justices who voted to uphold the conviction was British justice David Neuberger, who is still serving as non-permanent judge in the former British colony.  

Lai, seventy-six, the founder of the pro-democracy newspaper Apple Daily, was found guilty in 2021 of organizing and participating in an unauthorized assembly in August 2019 during months-long pro-democracy protests in the China-ruled city. He was sentenced to seventeen months in prison.  

Lai has been held in solitary confinement since December 2020, and in October 2022 he was sentenced to five years and seventeen months in prison for alleged fraud. He is now facing a separate trial under the National Security Law for his work at the shutdown Apple Daily, accused of colluding with foreign forces and conspiring to publish seditious materials.  

His national security trial was set to begin in 2022, but it began a year later because of the government’s challenges to Lai’s attempts to choose his own lawyer. On July 25, a Hong Kong court delayed his trial further, dismissing his mid-trial submission of “no case to answer” and adjourning the court until November. 

Ever since the introduction of the controversial National Security Law in 2019, Hong Kong journalists have been subject to brutal crackdowns on their freedom of press by the Chinese government. Foreign governments around the world have called out the law’s vague nature, making it easy to abuse. 

The head of Lai’s international legal team, King’s Counsel Caoilfhionn Gallagher, says the seven months of trial have only revealed how flimsy the case against Lai is.  

“Basic actions which are essential for any successful newspaper owner,” she says, “are described as criminal, such as asking respected public figures to write op-eds on newsworthy topics, widening the pool of readers, securing advertisers.” 

Lai is expected to testify in November, allowing Hong Kongers to finally hear from the man himself.