Jimmy LAI

Image Credit: ANTHONY WALLACE/AFP via Getty Images

A writer, publisher and pro-democracy activist with UK citizenship, Jimmy Lai has been held in prolonged solitary confinement since December 2020 for his journalism and peaceful activism (see Case Lists 2020-2025).  

After four earlier convictions, he was sentenced on 10 December 2022 to five years and nine months’ imprisonment for allegedly violating the terms of a commercial lease. On 18 December 2023, Lai was charged with two counts of ‘conspiracy to collude with foreign forces’ under Hong Kong’s National Security Law (NSL), and one count of ‘conspiracy to produce seditious publications’ under Hong Kong’s colonial-era sedition law. Prosecutors cited 161 editions of Apple Daily, the newspaper Lai founded in 1995, as evidence of sedition. Lai pleaded not guilty to all charges. On 30 August 2024, the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention found his detention to be arbitrary and called for his immediate release.  

On 15 December 2025, Hong Kong’s High Court found Lai guilty on all three charges, a move widely condemned by international human rights and press freedom organisations. Now 78, Lai will likely spend the remainder of his life in prison. PEN International has called for his immediate and unconditional release, warning that his prolonged solitary confinement and deteriorating health place him at serious risk. 

Jimmy Lai, born on 8 December 1947, is a veteran advocate for human rights and freedom of expression. Apple Daily was once Hong Kong’s most influential pro-democracy newspaper before it was forced to close on 24 June 2021. Lai is also the author of more than 20 books. On 21 September 2024, Lai was named as the recipient of PEN Canada’s One Humanity Award in recognition of his courage and commitment to free expression. 

Update: 

On 9 February 2026, Lai was sentenced to 20 years’ imprisonment on national security charges. The penalty is the harshest sentence handed down in a national security case in Hong Kong.