Source: The Guardian [UK]
“Jimmy Lai, the media mogul and prominent pro-democracy activist, has been sentenced to 20 years in prison in Hong Kong for national security offences, a punishment his daughter said could mean ‘he will die a martyr behind bars.’ Claire Lai said the sentence was ‘heartbreakingly cruel’ given her 78-year-old father’s declining health, while her brother Sebastien Lai called the sentence ‘draconian’ and ‘devastating.’ … Lai was convicted in December on charges of sedition and conspiracy to collude with foreign forces. He had pleaded not guilty to all charges. … Lai is the founder of the now-defunct Apple Daily, a popular Hong Kong newspaper that supported the pro-democracy movement that swelled in the city in the 2010s. The movement was crushed in June 2020 by the imposition of a harsh national security law that criminalised most forms of dissent.” (02/09/26)