Apple Daily founder Jimmy Lai has been sentenced to 14 months in prison for engaging in Hong Kong’s 2019 pro-democracy protests.
A Hong Kong court sentenced the pro-democracy media tycoon Jimmy Lai to 14 months in prison Friday, after finding him guilty of “unauthorized assembly” during pro-democracy protests in 2019. A new, additional charge was also lobbed at him Friday: two counts of “colluding with foreign forces,” which carries a maximum penalty of life in prison. Nine other of the city’s top pro-democracy campaigners were also sentenced alongside Lai Friday to up to 18 months in prison for their involvement in the same two 2019 protests. They are the most prominent and influential Hong Kong figures to be sent to jail thus far since Beijing enacted a draconian National Security Law (NSL) in the territory last summer, brought down in response to those protests and others that continued up until early last year. Eight of those defendants are over the age of 60, each known for their role in shaping Hong Kong law and politics since the end of British rule in 1997. Lai,73, is a long-standing critic of Beijing and founder of the loudly and proudly pro-democracy Apple Daily local newspaper. Earlier this week, his paper published his first public comments in months: a handwritten letter to his staff that he wrote from prison, which stated that “it is our responsibility as journalists to seek justice.
