Hong Kong ex-media tycoon Jimmy Lai will be sentenced Monday after national security conviction

Hong Kong’s pro-democracy former media tycoon Jimmy Lai will be sentenced Monday following his conviction in December under a Beijing-imposed national security law. Lai, the 78-year-old founder of the now-defunct Apple Daily newspaper, could face up to life in prison in the case that has stirred criticism from some foreign governments.

The judiciary said Friday on its website that it’s calling for the sentencing session at 10 a.m. Monday.

Lai was an outspoken critic of China’s ruling Communist Party and was arrested in 2020 under the national security law that Beijing deemed necessary for the city’s stabilityfollowing anti-government protests the previous year. His trial was widely seen as an indicator of the decline of press freedom in the former British colony, which returned to Chinese rule in 1997. But the city’s government insists the case has nothing to do with media freedom.

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