Hong Kong media mogul Jimmy Lai faces sentencing in landmark national security case

HONG KONG — HONG KONG (AP) — Jimmy Lai, the former Hong Kong media tycoon and fierce critic of Beijing, is set to be sentenced Monday in one of the most prominent cases brought under a China-imposed national security law that has virtually silenced the city’s dissent.

Three government-vetted judges in December convicted Lai, 78, of conspiring with others to collude with foreign forces to endanger national security and conspiracy to publish seditious articles. Lai, who pleaded not guilty to all charges, faces a maximum sentence of life imprisonment under Hong Kong’s security law that Beijing deemed necessary for the stability of the Chinese special administrative region.

The democracy advocate’s arrest and trial have raised concerns about the decline of press freedom in what was once an Asian bastion of media independence. The government insists the case has nothing to do with a free press, saying the defendants used news reporting as a pretext for years to commit acts that harmed China and Hong Kong.

Lai’s sentencing could heighten Beijing’s diplomatic tensions with foreign governments. His conviction has drawn criticism from the U.S. and the U.K.