'Eyes of world on Hong Kong' as China critic Jimmy Lai awaits Monday sentencing

Hong Kong media tycoon and democracy campaigner Jimmy Lai will be sentenced on February 9, the city's judiciary said on Friday, in a closely watched national security trial that has drawn international criticism including from the U.S. and Britain.

Lai, 78, the founder of the now-shuttered pro-democracy Apple Daily newspaper, was found guilty in December of two charges of conspiracy to collude with foreign forces under a China-imposed national security law, as well as a charge of conspiracy to publish seditious material.

Lai, who suffers from heart palpitations and high blood pressure after more than five years in solitary confinement, has pleaded not guilty to all the charges.

The landmark case has drawn international scrutiny of Hong Kong's judicial independence amid a years-long crackdown on rights and freedoms in the global financial hub after 2019 pro-democracy protests that Beijing saw as a challenge to its rule.

Hong Kong, a former British colony, returned to Chinese rule in 1997 amid guarantees it would maintain its own judicial system and freedoms distinct from mainland China.

TRUMP HAS PLEDGED TO 'SAVE' LAI

"The eyes of the world will be on Hong Kong," said Aleksandra Bielakowska, an Asia manager with Reporters Without Borders, a press freedom advocacy group, in a statement.

"The outcome will resonate far beyond Jimmy Lai himself, sending a decisive signal about the future of press freedom in the territory," she added.

U.S. President Donald Trump had raised Lai's case with Chinese President Xi Jinping in a meeting last October and has pledged to "save" Lai, who faces a possible life sentence.

Some countries, including the U.S. and Britain, have said the trial is politically motivated and demand Lai's immediate release.

Beijing, however, regards Lai as a mastermind of the 2019 protests and a conspirator advocating for U.S. sanctions against Hong Kong and China.

Lai was arrested in 2020, but his trial didn't begin until December 2023 and ran for 156 days. Chinese and Hong Kong authorities have defended the national security law for restoring stability to Hong Kong and say Lai is being given a fair trial.

Among the allegations, Lai was found guilty of using Apple Daily as a platform to conspire with six former executives and others to produce seditious publications between April 2019 and June 2021, as well as to collude with foreign forces, including the U.S., to impose sanctions, blockades and other hostile activities against China.

Chief Justice Andrew Cheung, Hong Kong's top judge, recently said that calls to free Lai prematurely would undermine the rule of law.

"Such demands not only circumvent the legal procedures established to ensure accountability under the law, but also strike at the very heart of the rule of law itself," he said.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said he had a "respectful discussion" regarding Lai with Chinese President Xi Jinping during a recent trip to Beijing, though he declined to provide details.