What happened
A Hong Kong court Monday morning sentenced former media tycoon Jimmy Lai to 20 years in prison. The 78-year-old British citizen, who founded the now-shuttered pro-democracy Apple Daily newspaper, was found guilty in December of conspiring to collude with foreign forces and publishing seditious materials.
His punishment is the “heaviest penalty yet meted out under a 2020 Beijing-imposed national security law,” said Bloomberg. Eight co-defendants received shorter prison terms.
Who said what
The judges said Lai was “no doubt the mastermind of all three conspiracies charged,” which “warrants a heavier sentence.” British Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper said Lai had been jailed “for exercising his right to freedom of expression” and called for his release “on humanitarian grounds.” His heavy sentence “aligns with how the Chinese Communist Party has punished wealthy entrepreneurs and influential academics in the mainland for challenging the state,” said The New York Times.
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What next?
President Donald Trump had encouraged Chinese President Xi Jinping to release Lai, so the sentence could “add another sticking point to negotiations between the world’s two largest economies,” scheduled for April, said The Wall Street Journal.