Current Cases

Background

Jimmy Lai is a veteran human rights activist, writer, publisher, and owner of the now-defunct Apple Daily newspaper, which was once regarded as Hong Kong’s most prolific pro-democracy news outlet before it was forced to close by the authorities on June 24, 2021. 

Lai has been continuously imprisoned since December 2020 following his initial detention in August 2020 on multiple charges for his journalism and activism. Jimmy Lai has already received four convictions of unauthorized assembly, and on December 10, 2022 Lai was sentenced to a total of five years and nine months’ imprisonment for violating the terms of a commercial lease.

On December 18, 2023, a new trial commenced on two charges under the NSL of ‘conspiracy to collude with foreign forces’, with the prosecution claiming that these ‘crimes’ were committed through his writings published by Apple Daily and by posts on his Twitter social media account. In addition to the NSL charges, Lai also faces a separate count of ‘conspiracy to produce seditious publications’ under Hong Kong’s colonial-era sedition law, with the prosecution citing 161 editions of Apple Daily from April 2019 until its closure as ‘examples of seditious publications[…] with a view to polluting the minds of the impressionable ones.’ Jimmy Lai has pleaded not guilty to all three charges. 

Lai’s ongoing detention is emblematic of the NSL’s devastating impact on freedom of expression across Hong Kong and is illustrative of the authorities’ willingness to use the legal system to silence dissenting voices. The chilling effect caused by the NSL has resulted in a climate of self-censorship across the territory, with several independent media outlets having dissolved in an effort to protect their staff from potential prosecution under the law for their critical journalism. 

Before Apple Daily was forced to close, Lai wrote a letter to his staff from prison, telling them that ‘freedom of speech is a dangerous job’ and that ‘it is time for us to stand tall with our heads held high’. He received a twelve-month sentence just days later.

Jimmy Lai received—in absentia—the PEN Canada One Humanity Award in 2024.