"Jimmy Lai, Hong Kong's prominent pro-democracy prisoner and media mogul, was sentenced to 20 years in prison under Beijing's sweeping national security law on Monday in a high-profile case that has dragged on for five years. Lai, the founder of the now-shuttered Apple Daily newspaper, was first arrested in August 2020 and found guilty late last year on two counts of foreign collusion and one count of seditious publication."
"After a months-long standoff with protesters occupying roads ended with thousands of arrests, China imposed its sweeping national security law in Hong Kong in 2020, effectively quelling the most significant challenge to the Communist Party's authority in decades. Called the Law of the People's Republic of China on Safeguarding National Security in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, the legislation practically criminalised protest, or any act of subversion, in Hong Kong. Since its introduction, it has seen a near-100 percent conviction rate."
Jimmy Lai, founder of the now-closed Apple Daily, was arrested in August 2020 and later convicted on counts of foreign collusion and seditious publication. At age 78, Lai received a 20-year prison sentence that rights groups describe as effectively a life term and profoundly unjust. Large-scale protests in Hong Kong began in 2019, led largely by students and young activists, and a months-long standoff produced thousands of arrests. China enacted the national security law in 2020, broadly criminalising protest and subversion, producing a near-100 percent conviction rate and quelling major pro-democracy challenges.
Read at www.aljazeera.com
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]