Hong Kong — Jimmy Lai, a pro-democracy former Hong Kong media tycoon and fierce critic of Beijing, was sentenced Monday to 20 years in prison in the longest sentence ever handed down by A national security law imposed by China which has virtual silenced the dissent of the city.

Lai, 78, was sentenced in December conspiring with others to conspire with foreign powers to endanger national security and conspiring to publish seditious articles. The maximum penalty for his conviction was life imprisonment.

His co-defendants, six former employees of his Apple Daily newspaper and two activists, received prison terms of between 6 years and 3 months and 10 years on charges related to the collusion.

Lai smiled and waved to his supporters as he arrived for his punishment. But before he left the courtroom, he looked serious, while some people in the public gallery wept. His lawyer Robert Pang did not comment when asked if he would appeal.

The arrest and trial of the advocate of democracy caused concern around decline of press freedom in what was once Asia’s bastion of media independence. The government insists the case has nothing to do with a free press, saying the defendants have used reporting for years as an excuse to commit acts that harm China and Hong Kong.

Lai was one of the first prominent people to be arrested under the security law of 2020. Within a year, some of Apple Daily’s senior reporters were also arrested, and the newspaper closed in June 2021.

Family warns Lai that “he will die a martyr behind bars”

In a statement, Lai’s son, Sebastien, said the “draconian” prison sentence was devastating for his family and life-threatening for his father. “It marks the complete destruction of Hong Kong’s legal system and the end of justice,” he said.

His sister Claire called the sentence “heartbreakingly cruel” in the same statement. “If this sentence is carried out, he will die a martyr behind bars,” she said.

Lai has been in custody for more than five years.

In January, his lawyer Pang said Lai had health problems including heart palpitations, high blood pressure and diabetes.

Prosecutors said a medical report showed Lai’s general health condition remained stable. The government claimed that Lai asked to be kept in solitary confinement.

Lai’s sentence condemned worldwide

The Lai verdict could heighten Beijing’s diplomatic tensions with foreign governments, which have criticized Lai’s conviction and sentence.

President Trump, who is scheduled to visit China in April, said in December that he felt “very bad” after the sentencing and noted that he had spoken to Chinese leader Xi Jinping about Lai and asked him “to consider releasing him.”

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s government has also called for the release of Lai, who is a British citizen. UK Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper called the prosecution “politically motivated”, saying the prison sentence was equivalent to a life sentence.

Human Rights Watch Asia Director Elaine Pearson said the harsh 20-year sentence was effectively a death sentence, calling it cruel and unjust.

Chinese leaders say Lai’s sentence ‘deeply gratifying’

Hong Kong leader John Lee said Lai’s sentence showed the rule of law, calling the crimes he was convicted of “heinous and evil in the extreme”.

“The heavy sentence of 20 years in prison handed down by the newspaper mogul demonstrates the rule of law, upholds justice and is deeply satisfying,” Lee said in a statement.

Lin Jian, a spokesman for China’s foreign ministry in Beijing, said Lai was a “key planner and participant in a series of anti-China and disruptive activities in Hong Kong”, and praised the punishment as “reasonable, legitimate and lawful”, adding: “There is no room for argument”.

Lin urged “relevant countries” to respect the rule of law in Hong Kong.

Lai was prosecuted under China’s sweeping new security law

Lai founded Apple Daily, a now-defunct newspaper known for its critical reporting against the governments in Hong Kong and Beijing. He was arrested in August 2020 under a security law used in a years-long crackdown on many leading activists in Hong Kong.

In their ruling, the three judges vetted by the government wrote that the starting point of Lai’s sentence was increased because they found him the mastermind of the plot. But they also reduced his sentence because they accepted that Lai’s age, health and solitary confinement would make his life in prison more difficult than that of other prisoners.

“Lai was undoubtedly the mastermind of all three conspiracies charged and therefore deserves a more severe sentence,” they said. “As for the others, it is difficult to distinguish their relative culpability.”

They took into account that Lai was serving a five-year, nine-month sentence in a separate fraud case and decided that 18 years of Lai’s sentence in the security case should be served consecutively to that sentence.

A chilling effect on Chinese journalists and academics

Urania Chiu, a law professor at Oxford Brookes University, said the case was significant because of the broad construction of seditious intent and the application of the term “collusion with foreign powers” to certain media activities. The implication is particularly alarming for journalists and those working in the academic community, she said.

“Offering and publishing legitimate criticism of the state, which often involves engagement with international platforms and audiences, can now easily be construed as ‘collusion,'” Chiu said.

Former Apple Daily employees and activists involved in Lai’s case pleaded guilty, helping to get their sentences reduced on Monday. They previously admitted to prosecution charges that they conspired with Lai to ask foreign powers to impose sanctions or blockades or engage in other hostile activities against Hong Kong or China.

The convicted journalists are publisher Cheung Kim-hung, associate publisher Chan Pui-man, editor-in-chief Ryan Law, executive editor-in-chief Lam Man-chung, executive editor-in-chief responsible for English news Fung Wai-kong and editorial writer Yeung Ching-kee. They received prison terms of six years and nine months to 10 years.

Two activists, Andy Li and Chan Tsz-wah, were sentenced to six years and three months and seven years and three months, respectively.

Cheung, Chan and Yeung, along with two activists, had their sentences reduced in part because they served as prosecution witnesses, and judges said their evidence contributed “significantly” to Lai’s conviction.

Before sunrise, dozens of people lined up outside the courthouse to secure a seat in the courtroom. One of them was former Apple Daily employee Tammy Cheung.

“Whatever happens, that’s the end – at least we’ll know the outcome,” Cheung said before the sentencing.

Lai founded Apple Daily in 1995, two years before the former British colony returned to Chinese rule. Its closure in 2021 shocked the domestic journalistic scene. Hong Kong ranked 140th out of 180 territories in the 2025 press freedom index compiled by media freedom organization Reporters Without Borders, down from its 18th place in 2002.