Daughter of Hong Kong tycoon Jimmy Lai tells CNN she is devastated by guilty verdict handed down to her father

The guilty verdict handed down this week to Hong Kong media tycoon and democracy advocate Jimmy Lai was expected but is still devastating, his daughter Claire Lai told CNN’s Jim Sciutto, blaming what she described as the city’s “highly compromised” legal system under Chinese rule.

Her father, 78, now faces the possibility of life in prison after his two-year trial under a sweeping national security law that Beijing imposed on the city following months of huge and sometimes violent pro-democracy protests.

Self-made billionaire Lai, founded a fiercely pro-democracy tabloid newspaper known for its blistering broadsides against the Chinese Communist Party until its forced closure in 2021.

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