Hong Kong’s High Court sentenced pro-democracy media tycoon Jimmy Lai to 20 years in prison on Monday, February 9, 2026, avoiding a potential life sentence under the National Security Law. 

Lai was convicted of conspiring with foreign forces and publishing seditious material, charges that have drawn widespread international attention.

Detained since August 2020, Lai has repeatedly described himself as a political prisoner. His conviction in December, following a non-jury trial that began in late 2023, has turned his case into a powerful symbol of the political transformation of Hong Kong and the tightening of justice under Beijing’s influence.

Born in Guangzhou in 1947, Lai moved to Hong Kong as a child and built a business empire from humble beginnings. After founding the Giordano clothing chain in 1981, he shifted his focus to media in the early 1990s, launching Next Magazine and later Apple Daily.

Apple Daily became one of the city’s most influential newspapers and a key voice for the pro-democracy movement, particularly during the mass protests of 2019. 

Prosecutors argued that the paper’s coverage encouraged unrest and international pressure, while the defense maintained it was protected journalism.

The implementation of the National Security Law in 2020 dramatically altered the city’s media and political landscape. 

Lai once called the law a “death sentence for Hong Kong,” warning it would silence dissent. In June 2021, Apple Daily was forced to shut down after police raids and asset freezes.

Lai remains in a maximum-security prison and is also serving an additional sentence for fraud. For supporters, his conviction marks the decline of press freedom in Hong Kong; for authorities, it represents the enforcement of a new legal order centered on national security and control.