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Document #2134267
RSF – Reporters Sans Frontières (Author)
Reporters Without Borders (RSF) is outraged that a court in Hong Kong has delivered a guilty verdict in the sham trial of British publisher Jimmy Lai, who has already been arbitrarily detained in appalling conditions for more than 1800 days. We call on democratic leaders worldwide to act immediately to secure the release of the 78-year-old founder of Apple Daily, whose health is failing and whose imprisonment is emblematic of a wider and devastating collapse of press freedom in the territory.
On 15 December, Lai was found guilty of offences under Hong Kong’s draconian National Security Law, including two counts of "collusion with foreign forces” and conspiring to publish “seditious” material. As supposed evidence, prosecutors cited more than 160 Apple Daily articles as examples of “seditious publications” and named several human rights defenders, with whom Lai had been in touch in past years, as “co-conspirators” in his alleged collusion with foreign forces.
His sentence will be announced at a later date. Six members of Apple Daily staff prosecuted alongside him are also awaiting sentences.
Lai, a laureate of the RSF Press Freedom Award, has been in prison continuously since December 2020. Subjected to harsh conditions of solitary confinement, he is restricted to only 50 minutes of “exercise” per day in a metal cage, which has led to significant deterioration of his health. His family has warned that his fingernails have fallen off and his teeth rotted, and that he has suffered severe weight loss.
“We are outraged that Jimmy Lai, Hong Kong’s symbol of press freedom, has been found guilty on trumped-up national security charges. This unlawful conviction only demonstrates the alarming deterioration of media freedom in the territory: make no mistake: it is not an individual who has been on trial — it is press freedom itself, and with this verdict that has been shattered. The Apple Daily founder has embodied the courage of independent journalists in Hong Kong, and this verdict crushes any remaining space they have. Democracies must finally act, and act fast: if they don’t, Lai will die in jail, and they will send a clear signal to the Chinese regime that it can spread its authoritarian model and violate international law, scot-free.
Lai’s life at risk
According to a recent media report, after being photographed in 2023 by the Associated Press (AP), Lai was transferred from high security Stanley Prison to the isolated Lai Chi Kok Reception Centre, and to a cell with almost no natural light, further separating him from the outside world. Throughout his detention and legal proceedings, he has systematically been denied a fair trial: the three judges leading the trial were hand-picked by Beijing, he was barred from choosing his own legal counsel, deprived of a jury, and faced with testimony from a so-called “witness” who had reportedly been tortured.
In early December, Lai’s daughter Claire Lai told Agence France Presse (AFP) that her father’s nails had turned “almost purple, grey and greenish before they fell off” and that his teeth are getting rotten. He is also at risk of dying from complications from diabetes and extreme weight loss. RSF and a coalition of 72 NGOs raised these serious health concerns two months ago in a letter to UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, calling on the latter to secure Lai’s immediate release, as the continued denial of specialist medical care puts him at immediate risk of potentially fatal complications.
Timeline of Jimmy Lai’s ordeal and RSF’s mobilisation :
Since 2020, the Hong Kong government has prosecuted at least 28 journalists, eight of whom are currently detained. Hong Kong is ranked 140th in the 2025 RSF World Press Freedom Index, having plummeted down the rankings from 18th place in just two decades. China itself ranks 178th of the 180 countries and territories surveyed.
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