HONG KONG — A court sentenced media entrepreneur Jimmy Lai to 20 years in prison Monday after convicting him under the city’s national security law, the harshest punishment yet in its most prominent security trial. Critics say the case punishes journalism and political speech, while officials say it targets conspiracies that endangered national security, Feb. 9, 2026.
Jimmy Lai, 78, was convicted in December of two counts of conspiracy to collude with foreign forces and one count tied to publishing seditious materials, according to The Associated Press’ report on the sentencing. The convictions carried a maximum penalty of life imprisonment; Lai pleaded not guilty and told the court he is a political prisoner.
Global condemnation after Jimmy Lai sentencing
International criticism came quickly. In a roundup of reaction, Reuters quoted British Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper calling the punishment “tantamount to a life sentence.” The same report quoted Hong Kong Chief Executive John Lee calling Jimmy Lai’s crimes “heinous and utterly unforgivable.”
Amnesty International said the sentence showed how the national security law was being used to criminalize core freedoms. The group called Jimmy Lai a “prisoner of conscience” and said, “The Hong Kong authorities must immediately and unconditionally release him.”
The Committee to Protect Journalists said the ruling would further erode press freedom in the city. “The rule of law has been completely shattered in Hong Kong,” CPJ CEO Jodie Ginsberg said in a statement.
The Jimmy Lai case and the charges
Prosecutors said Jimmy Lai used the now-defunct Apple Daily newspaper and his international contacts to encourage sanctions and other hostile measures against Chinese and Hong Kong officials. Judges said he played a leading role in the conspiracies and placed the case in the most severe sentencing band for offenses of a “grave nature,” while also weighing his age and health in the final sentence.
Co-defendants, including former Apple Daily executives and activists who pleaded guilty and cooperated with prosecutors, received sentences ranging from about six years to 10 years, court coverage said. Jimmy Lai is also serving a separate fraud sentence tied to the lease of Apple Daily’s former headquarters, and the court ordered part of the national security term to run consecutively — meaning he could remain behind bars well into his 90s.
How the Jimmy Lai prosecution unfolded
The case sits inside a wider crackdown that followed the 2019 protests and the imposition of a Beijing-written national security law in 2020. Jimmy Lai was arrested in August 2020 as police raided the Apple Daily newsroom, Al Jazeera reported at the time.
Apple Daily shut down in June 2021 after raids and asset freezes left it unable to operate, a closure Reuters described as a “painful farewell”. In December 2022, another court sentenced Jimmy Lai to five years and nine months for fraud tied to a lease dispute involving the newspaper’s former offices.
The national security trial began in December 2023 and ran for months before the court returned guilty verdicts in December 2025, setting the stage for Monday’s sentencing and renewed international pressure tied to Jimmy Lai’s health and age.
What comes next for Jimmy Lai
Jimmy Lai’s lawyers have not publicly confirmed whether they will appeal the national security convictions. Supporters and critics of the case alike say the sentence will remain a diplomatic flashpoint — and a measure of how far Hong Kong’s press and political freedoms have shifted under the security law.
