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.
Former Hong Kong pro-democracy media mogul Jimmy Lai convicted in landmark national security trial
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.
