"On Monday morning, a panel of three judges found Lai, 78, guilty of two counts of conspiring with foreign forces to threaten national security and one count of conspiracy to publish seditious material. Lai had pleaded not guilty to all the charges. He has been in detention since December 2020, when he was arrested in the midst of a series of antigovernment protests that gripped Hong Kong."
"On Monday, Judge Esther Toh accused Lai of making constant invitations to the United States to take action against the People's Republic of China (PRC) and its ruling Communist Party. She and her fellow judges, Alex Lee and Susana D'Almada Remedios, issued an 855-page verdict in the case, which described Lai as the mastermind of a criminal conspiracy. There is no doubt that the first defendant had harboured his resentment and hatred of the PRC for many of his adult years,"
"The case has been seen as a test of Hong Kong's one country, two systems principle, which was established after the former British colony was returned to China in 1997. The principle affirmed that Hong Kong was part of China, but in theory, it allowed the territory to retain its own governance and administrative structure, separate from Beijing. But activists say that autonomy has been threatened in recent years, as China seeks to assert greater control over Hong Kong."
Jimmy Lai, 78, was convicted on three charges related to undermining China's national security, including two counts of conspiring with foreign forces and one count of conspiracy to publish seditious material. Lai pleaded not guilty and has been detained since his December 2020 arrest during antigovernment protests. High Court judges described him as the mastermind of a criminal conspiracy in an 855-page verdict and accused him of inviting the United States to act against the PRC and the ruling Communist Party. Lai faces a possible life sentence. Activists characterize the verdict as unlawful and warn that Hong Kong's autonomy and press freedom are under threat.
Read at www.aljazeera.com
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