Closing arguments in Jimmy Lai national security trial, verdict due

Closing arguments have concluded in the landmark national security trial of Hong Kong media tycoon Jimmy Lai, leaving the 77 year old founder of the now-defunct Apple Daily awaiting a verdict that could carry a sentence anywhere from three years to life in prison. The trial, which began in December 2023 and stretched over roughly 156 days, has focused on charges that Lai conspired with foreign forces and conspired to publish seditious material under a national security law imposed by Beijing in 2020. The court has not yet set a date for the verdict, saying it will be announced "in good time."

Lai, who built a business empire in Hong Kong after arriving from mainland China as a child and who became a British national in 1996, was arrested in August 2020. Prosecutors have accused him of using Apple Daily to solicit sanctions and other hostile acts by foreign countries, and of working with others to produce publications they say incited sedition during and after the 2019 protests. The prosecution argued that Lai persisted in seeking foreign actions even after the national security law took effect, and that his persistent outreach demonstrated intent to endanger national security.