<\/p>\n
Jimmy Lai, a once mighty media mogul and prominent pro-democracy activist, has been sentenced to 20 years in prison in Hong Kong<\/a> for national security offences.<\/p>\n The sentencing is the culmination of a years-long saga that critics say represents Hong Kong\u2019s transformation<\/a> from a mostly free city to one where dissent is fiercely suppressed by the Chinese Communist party-controlled authorities.<\/p>\n Lai, 78, was convicted in December<\/a> on charges of sedition and conspiracy to collude with foreign forces. He had pleaded not guilty to all charges. The collusion convictions carry a maximum penalty of life imprisonment.<\/p>\n Lai\u2019s prosecution has been described as politically motivated by human rights groups and the British government, which has called for his release.<\/p>\n On Friday, Chinese state media described Lai, a British citizen who has lived in Hong Kong since he fled China<\/a> as a child refugee, as an \u201canti-government instigator and traitor\u201d.<\/p>\n Lai is the founder of the now defunct Apple Daily, a popular Hong Kong newspaper<\/a> that supported the pro-democracy movement that swelled in the city in the 2010s.<\/p>\n The movement was crushed in June 2020 by the imposition of a harsh national security law which criminalised most forms of dissent. Lai was arrested and charged under that law in August that year. Apple Daily was forced to close in 2021.<\/p>\n The UK prime minister Keir Starmer said that he raised Lai\u2019s case<\/a> when he met China\u2019s leader, Xi Jinping, in Beijing in January. But it is not clear what, if any, progress the UK has made towards securing Lai\u2019s release. Lai\u2019s son, Sebastien Lai, said recently<\/a> that the UK government had not done enough for his father and that \u201ctime is running out\u201d.<\/p>\n The US president, Donald Trump, has also said that he would secure Lai\u2019s release.<\/p>\n