A Hong Kong court on Monday sentenced Jimmy Lai, the 78-year-old founder of the now-defunct Apple Daily newspaper, to 20 years in prison — the longest term ever imposed under the national security law Beijing placed on the territory in 2020.

Three judges handpicked by Hong Kong's pro-Beijing leadership to oversee national security cases delivered the ruling at West Kowloon Court in a hearing that lasted less than 30 minutes. Lai was convicted in December on two counts of conspiring to collude with foreign forces under the national security law and a third count of conspiracy to publish seditious material under a separate colonial-era statute. He pleaded not guilty to all charges.

"Having stepped back and taking a global view of the total sentence for Lai's serious and grave criminal conduct … we are satisfied that the total sentence for Lai in the present case should be 20 years' imprisonment," the court said in its ruling. Although the three charges collectively carried sentences totaling more than 35 years, the court ordered some terms to run concurrently.

The judges ruled that Lai's foreign collusion conspiracies were of a "grave nature," "well planned," and "premeditated" — the most serious category under the law, which carries a sentencing range of 10 years to life. They declined a defense request for leniency on medical grounds, writing that "medical grounds will seldom, if ever, be a basis for reducing the sentence for crimes of gravity."

Lai, who suffers from diabetes, hypertension, and heart palpitations, has been in custody for more than five years, most of it in solitary confinement. His earliest possible release date, assuming a one-third reduction for good behavior under the domestic security law, would be 2044. He would be 96 years old.

He was seen smiling calmly and nodding when the sentence was announced. Some members of the public in the courtroom were heard sobbing. His wife, Teresa Lai, left the courthouse trying to hold back tears.

Six former senior Apple Daily staffers who had pleaded guilty were sentenced to between six years and nine months and 10 years. Two activists who testified for the prosecution received sentences of up to seven years and three months.

What Lai was convicted of

Prosecutors portrayed Lai as the mastermind behind a campaign to lobby foreign governments — chiefly the United States — to impose sanctions, blockades, or other hostile measures against Hong Kong and China. The court's 855-page verdict cited his meetings with senior American officials during the 2019 pro-democracy protests, including Vice President Mike Pence, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, National Security Adviser John Bolton, and multiple members of Congress.

Lai was also found guilty of using Apple Daily as a platform to conspire with six former executives and others to produce seditious publications between April 2019 and June 2021. The judges said he never wavered in his intention to destabilize the ruling Chinese Communist Party, taking issue with what they described as his "constant invitation" to the United States to bring down the Chinese government under the guise of helping Hong Kongers.

Lai testified for 52 days in his own defense during the 156-day trial, arguing he had not called for foreign sanctions after the national security law's introduction. The judges rejected that account.

Urania Chiu, a lecturer in law at Oxford Brookes University, said the case was significant for its broad construction of seditious intent and its application of the term "collusion with foreign forces" to certain media activities. "Offering and publishing legitimate critiques of the state, which often involves engagement with international platforms and audiences, may now easily be construed as 'collusion,'" she said.

The man and the newspaper

Lai arrived in Hong Kong as a 12-year-old stowaway on a fishing boat from the Chinese city of Guangzhou. He worked menial jobs, built a fortune in the garment industry, and founded the clothing brand Giordano before turning to media. After the Chinese government's crackdown on pro-democracy protesters in Tiananmen Square in 1989, he became a vocal democracy advocate.

He launched Apple Daily in 1995, two years before Hong Kong returned to Chinese rule after 156 years as a British colony. The tabloid-style paper drew a wide readership with investigative journalism, animated video reports, and consistent editorial support for Hong Kong's pro-democracy movement. It became one of the territory's best-selling newspapers and a regular target of Beijing's ire.

Lai was among the first prominent figures arrested under the national security law in August 2020. Within a year, some 500 police officers raided Apple Daily's newsroom, froze the company's assets, and arrested several senior editors and executives. The paper printed its final edition in June 2021. A million copies sold out.

Hong Kong has since plummeted in international press freedom rankings. Reporters Without Borders ranked the territory 140th out of 180 in its most recent index — down from 18th in 2002. The organization says at least 900 Hong Kong journalists lost their jobs in the four years after the national security law was enacted. At least 51 journalists are currently behind bars across China, including eight in Hong Kong, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists.

International reaction and diplomatic pressure

The sentence landed at a moment when the world's major powers are simultaneously condemning Lai's prosecution and working to stabilize their relationships with Beijing — a tension that has defined Western diplomacy toward the case from the start.

President Donald Trump said in December, after Lai's conviction, that he felt "so badly" and had asked Chinese leader Xi Jinping to "consider his release." He stopped short of announcing new pressure. Trump is expected to visit Beijing in April as the two countries try to maintain a fragile trade truce. His ambassador to China, David Perdue, described Lai's case last month as an "ongoing conversation" between the two leaders.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer raised the issue during a landmark trip to Beijing in January, calling for Lai's release. Lai is a British citizen. Starmer told the U.K. parliament afterward that he had a "respectful discussion" with Xi on the matter but declined to provide specifics. His son, Sebastien Lai, criticized the British government's approach at a parliamentary hearing, saying the trip had been "a big thing to have been given away" without securing conditions for his father's freedom.

Canada's Prime Minister Mark Carney also called for Lai's release during a recent visit to Beijing, even as he announced a "new strategic partnership" with China. G7 foreign ministers jointly condemned Lai's prosecution in December.

Beijing and Hong Kong authorities have rejected all such appeals as foreign interference. Hong Kong's chief justice, Andrew Cheung, said in a speech last month that calls for Lai's premature release "strike at the very heart of the rule of law itself." The government has maintained that Lai's case "has nothing to do with freedom of speech and of the press" and that the defendants used journalism as a pretext for acts that endangered national security.

What it means for Hong Kong

Human Rights Watch called the sentence "effectively a death sentence" for a 78-year-old man. Mark Clifford, president of the Committee for Freedom in Hong Kong Foundation and author of a book on Lai, said the court had handed Lai a life sentence "without stating so explicitly." He added that "China needs to understand that Lai is more trouble in prison than outside it" and suggested that sending him into exile would serve everyone's interests.

Reporters Without Borders condemned the ruling in stark terms. "Today the curtain falls on press freedom in Hong Kong," its director, Thibaut Bruttin, said, drawing a comparison to the case of Liu Xiaobo, the Nobel Peace Prize laureate who was sentenced to 11 years for subversion and died of cancer in Chinese custody in 2017 after being granted medical parole too late to save his life. "We cannot allow Jimmy Lai to suffer a similar fate," Bruttin said.

A former Apple Daily reporter, identified only by the surname Wong, warned the sentence would accelerate the decline of what remains of Hong Kong's media industry. "If the sentences are used to set the boundaries at the maximum level, it won't just add insult to injury for press freedom; it will be an avalanche," Wong said.

Dozens of supporters had lined up outside the courthouse since Thursday evening, some sleeping on the pavement between the building and steel police barricades, to secure a seat in the courtroom. One supporter, CK Chan, 67, had been waiting since Thursday. "Mr. Lai is a symbol," he said. "He represents Hong Kong's pursuit of freedom. I hope he takes good care of his health."