China - Hong Kong: Verdict of Jimmy Lai’s trial expected to be issued on Monday

“In advance of the verdict expected to be handed down on Monday, we call on the Hong Kong and Chinese authorities once again to end this injustice by dropping all charges against writer and media publisher Jimmy Lai. The world is watching, and Jimmy Lai’s ongoing persecution is an affront to the right to freedom of expression”.  Ma Thida, Chair of PEN International’s Writers in Prison Committee.

12 December 2025: Following the Hong Kong judiciary’s announcement that the verdict in Jimmy Lai’s long-running national security trial is due to be handed down on Monday, PEN International calls for all charges against him to be dropped, and for his immediate and unconditional release.

On 15 December, Hong Kong’s High Court is due to hand down the verdict of the national security trial against writer and media publisher Jimmy Lai. The trial commenced on 18 December 2023 on two counts of violating Hong Kong’s draconian National Security Law (NSL), and a separate charge under Hong Kong’s colonial-era sedition law, with the prosecution citing 161 editions of Apple Daily, which Lai had founded in 1995, as ‘examples of seditious publications[...]’. Jimmy Lai has denied all charges.

The landmark trial under the NSL underscores the erosion of Hong Kong’s once-lauded freedoms and serves as a chilling example of how national security laws can be abused to silence peaceful expression and public-interest journalism. If convicted, Jimmy Lai faces a potential life sentence.

Jimmy Lai, who spent his 78th birthday behind bars earlier this week, has been held in solitary confinement since December 2020. Over the course of his unjust detention, his health has significantly deteriorated, with his children expressing alarm over his well-being, noting that ‘his nails turn almost purple, grey and greenish before they fall off, and his teeth are getting rotten’. On 4 September, his international legal team submitted an urgent appeal to UN experts about life-threatening risks posed by his ongoing arbitrary detention.

PEN International has campaigned for Jimmy Lai’s release since his initial arrest in August 2020. On 17 September 2025, we supported his son, Sebastien Lai, in addressing the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention in calling on the Hong Kong and Chinese authorities to release his father.

Note to Editors:

For further information please contact Ross Holder, Head of Asia-Pacific region at PEN International, email: [email protected]

For media queries, please contact Sabrina Tucci, PEN International Head of Communications and Campaigns, email:  [email protected]