Kelly
BBC News, Singapore
Jimmy Lai, a pro-democracy media mogul from Hong Kong, has been found guilty of collaborating with foreign forces, a crime punishable under China's controversial national security law.
Lai, a 78-year-old British citizen who has been in prison since December 2020, has pleaded not guilty.
He faces a life sentence and is expected to be sentenced early next year.
The court established that Laj used his now defunct daily newspaper Apple Daily (Apple daily) with the intention of lobbying foreign governments to impose sanctions on Hong Kong and China.
Hong Kong Chief Executive John Lee welcomed the verdict, saying Lai's actions "harmed the country's interests and the well-being of Hong Kong people", but human rights groups called the trial a "cruel farce".
Lai is the most prominent figure opposing the authorities in Beijing.
He was accused of violating a 2020 Chinese law, in response to mass protests that broke out in Hong Kong a year earlier.
Law criminalizes anything Beijing considers subversive or secessionist - from chanting slogans to participation in opposition protests.
China claims it is necessary to preserve Hong Kong's stability, but critics say the law effectively bans any dissent and dissenting opinion.
Hong Kong was under British rule, but was handed over to China for administration.
Hong Kong has retained some autonomy, but Beijing has established its rule through loyalists, tasked with enforcing Chinese laws.
Hong Kong authorities claim that Lai had a fair trial, according to the law, but critics say his case shows how the city's legal system has been used to silence opposition.
Laj's family has expressed concern about his deteriorating health in detention.
His son Sebastian told the BBC in August 2025 that even five years in prison for Jimmy Lai "would practically be like a death sentence."
This media mogul has become one of the most vocal critics of the Chinese state and a leading figure advocating for democracy in the former British territory.
“I was born a rebel,” he told the BBC in a 2020 interview, hours before he was charged and arrested.
"I have a very rebellious character," he added.
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From poverty to wealth
Jimmy Lai was born in Guangzhou, a city in southern China, into a wealthy family, who lost everything when the Communists took power in 1949.
He was 12 years old when he fled his native village in mainland China, arriving in Hong Kong as a stowaway on a fishing boat.
While working various jobs and knitting in a small clothing store, he learned English.
From an ordinary and part-time worker, he rose to the founder of an international clothing brand. Giordano.
The chain was a huge success, but when China sent tanks to crush pro-democracy protests in Beijing, Tiananmen Square in 1989, Lai began a new life journey as a vocal democratic activist, but also an entrepreneur.
He began writing columns, criticizing the massacre that followed the demonstrations in Beijing.
He then founded a publishing house, which became one of the most influential in Hong Kong.
Watch a video about the events in Tiananmen Square in Beijing
Chinese authorities threatened to close his stores on the mainland, which led Lai to sell the company.
He then launched a number of popular pro-democracy newspapers, such as the online magazine Next (Next) and the popular newspaper Apple Daily.
In the local media world, increasingly feared by Beijing, Lai was a constant critic of the Chinese authorities, which he expressed in publications and writings.
Because of this, many in Hong Kong saw him as a brave man who took great risks to defend the city's freedoms.
On the mainland, however, he is considered a "traitor" who is a threat to Chinese national security.
In recent years, masked attackers have thrown firebombs at Lay's home and company headquarters, and he has also been the target of assassination attempts.
None of the threats stopped him from expressing his views loudly.
He was an active participant in the city's pro-democracy demonstrations, and in 2021 he was detained twice for illegal assembly.
When China passed a new national security law for Hong Kong in June 2020, Lai told the BBC that it was a "death sentence" for Hong Kong.
The media mogul is known for his outspoken and extravagant actions.
He called on US President Donald Trump to help Hong Kong, because he is "the only one who can save it" from China.
He ended the letter with the words: "Mr. President, please help us," and it was published on the front page of his newspaper, the Apple Daily.
Such actions were necessary for Laius to defend the city that had received him and to foster his success.
"I came here with nothing, and the freedom of this place has given me everything."
"Maybe it's time for me to repay that freedom and fight for it," he once told Agence France-Presse.
Jimmy Lai was charged with many crimes in 2020, including organizing an illegal gathering or protest.
His case has also attracted international attention, with human rights groups and foreign governments demanding freedom for the media mogul.
Over the years, his son Sebastian Lai has traveled the world to speak out about his father's case and to criticize the authorities in Hong Kong and Beijing for punishing "values that should be celebrated."
"My father is in prison for speaking the truth, having courage in his heart, and freedom in his soul," he said.
About Hong Kong and its special status
It was a British colony for more than 150 years - one part of it, Hong Kong Island, was annexed to Great Britain after the 1842 war.
Later, China leased the rest of Hong Kong - the New Territories - to the British for 99 years.
It became a busy trading port, and its economy boomed in the 1950s, when it became a manufacturing hub.
The territory was also popular with migrants and dissidents fleeing instability, poverty or persecution in mainland China.
Then, in the early 1980s, as the 99-year lease was slowly coming to an end, Britain and China began negotiations over the future of Hong Kong - the communist government in China believed that all of Hong Kong should be returned.
The two sides reached an agreement in 1984 under which Hong Kong would return to China in 1997, under the principle of "one country, two systems."
This meant that, although it would become part of a single country with China, Hong Kong would enjoy "a high degree of autonomy, except in foreign affairs and defense" for the next 50 years.
As a result, Hong Kong has its own legal system and borders, and rights, including freedom of assembly and freedom of speech, remain protected.
Hong Kong was one of the few places on Chinese territory where people could commemorate the Tiananmen Square massacre in Beijing.
In recent years, there have been several opposition protests, and one police shot at demonstrators.
Watch an earlier video about the Tiananmen Square massacre anniversary in Hong Kong and the arrest of the rally organizer
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