Jimmy Lai’s verdict sends clear messages |
Jimmy Lai Chee-ying, an instigator of the anti-China riots in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, was found guilty on Monday on two charges of conspiring to collude with external forces and a charge of conspiracy to publish seditious materials.
The verdict was handed down by the High Court of the SAR in a national security case in which the defendants, including Lai and three Apple Daily companies, all faced charges of conspiracy to publish seditious materials and conspiracy to collude with external forces. Lai also faced a separate charge of conspiring to collude with external forces.
The case — the first in which a public figure has been charged with “conspiracy to collude with foreign forces” under the Law of the People’s Republic of China on Safeguarding National Security in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, since the law was promulgated on June 30, 2020 — has attracted worldwide attention.
Not least among politicians in the capital of the United States and those of the other Five Eyes countries for........