Maia Davies
Live reporter

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Pro-democracy media tycoon and British citizen Jimmy Lai, 78, has been jailed for 20 years over national security offences, in a decision that has provoked uproar from the UK, Europe and the US.

A Hong Kong court called his offences “grave” and “premeditated” as it handed down the toughest sentence yet under the city’s controversial national security law on Monday.

Lai, one of Hong Kong’s most prominent Beijing critics, was seen as a hero by the pro-democracy movement and had often used his newspaper, Apple Daily, as a tool of protest. He always denied the charges against him.

Some supporters had been waiting outside the court since Friday evening, and were joined ahead of the sentencing by a heavy police presence and strict cordons.

Lai's son Sebastien told the BBC the move was “basically a death sentence” and that he was being punished for defending “the freedoms of Hong Kong”.

While China's foreign ministry said the decision was “reasonable, legitimate and legal”, it was condemned by democracies, as well as a number of rights and media organisations, with Amnesty International calling the decision a "grim milestone" for Hong Kong.

UK Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper said Lai had been jailed after a “politically motivated prosecution”, and that the UK would “rapidly engage” with Beijing over the matter.

• If you want to keep reading about Lai's sentencing, and the reaction to it, head to our main news story

Malu Cursino
Live reporter

Image source, EPA

The UK government has announced a visa scheme to allow thousands more people from Hong Kong "to build new lives in Britain" following Jimmy Lai's "politically motivated prosecution".

The Home Office says today's sentencing of Jimmy Lai, a British citizen, "shows how the Beijing-imposed National Security Law has criminalised dissent, prompting many to leave the territory".

It says children of British National (Overseas) status holders at the time of the 1997 handover to China will now be eligible to study, work and live in the UK with their families. British national (overseas) status means you can hold a British passport but you are subject to immigration checks.

Hong Kong is a former British colony. The United Kingdom governed the area from 1841 to 1941, and from 1945 to 1997, after which it was handed to China.

Today's announcement means adult children of British National (Overseas) status holders, who were under 18 at the time of the handover, "will now be eligible to apply for the route independently of their parents".

The government estimates that 26,000 people will arrive in the UK under the scheme over the next five years.

"This country will always honour its historic commitment to the people of Hong Kong," Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood says, adding that "the continued deterioration of rights and freedoms [in Hong Kong]" prompted the expansion of the scheme.

Alongside condemnation from parts of the international community, we've also heard from China's Foreign Ministry, whose spokesman Lin Jian calls Lai's sentencing "reasonable, legitimate, and legal; there is no room for argument."

We reported more of his remarks earlier. In those he characterised Lai as "a principal planner and participant in a series of anti-China, destabilising activities in Hong Kong".

Several human rights and media organisations have condemned Lai's 20-year sentence, including Amnesty International, who has called his imprisonment a "cold-blooded attack on freedom of expression".

The sentencing of the pro-democracy media tycoon Jimmy Lai has sparked strong reactions from the international community. UK Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper called on the Chinese government to end the "appalling ordeal" facing Lai. Here's what else is being said around the world:

• In the United States, Republican congressman John Moolenaar, chairman for the House Select Committee on China, says if President Xi Jinping "wants to improve his relationship with the United States, freeing Jimmy Lai is where he needs to start"
• The European Union's foreign affairs spokesperson Anitta Hipper says the bloc "deplores" the sentencing of the 78-year-old and calls for his "immediate and unconditional release"
• Taiwan's Mainland Affairs Council says that China and Hong Kong have "brought media influence and international connections within the scope of national security measures, aiming to create a chilling effect across sectors and borders"
• Australia's Minister for Foreign Affairs, Penny Wong, says the government is "gravely concerned" by the sentences handed down to Lai and his co-defendants, adding that the prosecutions have left a "chilling effect on free speech in Hong Kong"

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Some reaction now from the Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch, who focuses her criticism over Jimmy Lai's sentencing on the prime minister.

Badenoch writes on X: "Keir Starmer 'raising it' with the CCP [the Chinese Communist Party] during his visit, approving their mega-embassy and surrendering the Chagos Islands clearly did nothing.

"The Chinese have walked all over our weak Prime Minister."

For context: The UK government recently approved a huge Chinese embassy in London, saying issues over security had been taken into account. Separately, the Tories have said the decision to hand the Chagos Islands to Mauritius undermined national security because of the latter's ties to China.

Image source, PA

We've just brought you remarks from Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper, who said Prime Minister Keir Starmer previously raised Jimmy Lai’s case with President Xi Jinping his trip to Beijing in late January.

Asked by reporters during the diplomatic trip how forcefully he had raised the case, as well as human rights concerns over China's treatment of Uyghurs, Starmer replied: "We raised those issues as you would expect."

He continued: "Part of the rationale for engagement is to make sure that we can both seize the opportunities that are available - which is what we've done - but also have a mature discussion about issues that we disagree on."

Asked at the time if China was listening to him, the PM said: "Yes, we did have a respectful discussion about that."

Image source, PA Media

Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper says the UK will "rapidly engage" with the Chinese government over Jimmy Lai's sentencing after the pro-democracy media tycoon was jailed for 20 years.

"For the 78-year-old, this is tantamount to a life sentence. I remain deeply concerned for Mr Lai’s health," Cooper says in a statement, adding that she calls on the Hong Kong authorities "to end his appalling ordeal and release him on humanitarian grounds, so that he may be reunited with his family".

Cooper says Lai was jailed "for exercising his right to freedom of expression, following a politically motivated prosecution".

"Beijing’s National Security Law was imposed on Hong Kong to silence China’s critics," she says.

Cooper says the prime minister had raised Lai's case directly with Chinese President Xi Jinping during his Beijing trip.

Earlier on the Today programme, Sebastien Lai suggested a way to improve UK-China relations would be to have his father released to the UK.

He expands on this in a television interview with BBC News, saying his father's sentencing "tells you all you need to know" about relations between both countries.

"If they can't even put a 78-year-old man ... on the plane and sending him back here now – especially given his deteriorating health – then that tells you all you need to know about the relationship we have with China," he says.

Asked whether he has a direct message for anything listening "who may be able to do something about this", Sebastien Lai says his father "decided to dedicate his life to defending the freedoms of Hong Kong".

"For that heroism, he's being punished, he's essentially getting a death sentence for that," he tells the Today programme.

"Surely a man who has given so much for liberty, for freedom, deserves a bit of it himself."

Earlier in the interview Sebastien Lai referred to the UK government's aim of normalising relations with Beijing, following Prime Minister Keir Starmer's recent trip to China.

Lai suggested a way to do that would be to have his father released to the UK.

Jimmy Lai's son, Sebastien Lai, has just spoken to BBC Radio 4's Today programme.

Responding to his father's 20-year sentence, Lai says "it is incredibly heartbreaking" and they had expected this would happen, but did not expect it would take five years for his sentence to be handed down.

"Even if he got another two, three years, given his health, given that he has heart issues, given that he has lost 10kg in the last year alone, that's basically a death sentence," he says about any additional time his father spends in prison.

Asked what the British government has said to him about securing his father's freedom, Lai says the government has raised the issue but "obviously my father is still in prison".

Lai says the government said his father's case was "raised at the highest level" but his father is still not free.

Amnesty International has joined a chorus of voices from human rights and media organisations condemning the 20-year sentence handed to Jimmy Lai this morning.

“This sentencing marks another grim milestone in Hong Kong’s transformation from a city governed by the rule of law to one ruled by fear," said Amnesty international's deputy regional director Sarah Brooks.

"Imprisoning a 78-year-old man for doing nothing more than exercising his rights shows a complete disregard for human dignity. Every day he spends in behind bars is a grave injustice.

“With this ruling we see yet again how Hong Kong’s National Security Law is being used to distort fundamental freedoms into criminal acts. Jimmy Lai’s imprisonment is a cold-blooded attack of freedom of expression that epitomises the systematic dismantling of rights that once defined Hong Kong."

She said the Hong Kong authorities must immediately and unconditionally release him.

Speaking at a daily briefing on Monday afternoon local time, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian expressed the ministry's "firm support for the Hong Kong government in maintaining national security".

He characterised Lai as a "a principal planner and participant in a series of anti-China, destabilising activities in Hong Kong".

"His actions have severely undermined the fundamental principles of 'one country, two systems', seriously endangered national security, and gravely harmed Hong Kong’s prosperity, stability, and the well-being of its citizens," Lin said. "He should be duly punished under the law."

Referring to comments made by UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer and US President Donald Trump, both of whom have advocated for Lai's release, Lin urged "the countries concerned to respect China’s sovereignty and Hong Kong’s legal system, refrain from making irresponsible remarks... and not [to] interfere in Hong Kong’s judiciary or China’s internal affairs in any form".

A former Hong Kong legislator has decried Jimmy Lai's sentencing as a harsh, "textbook political verdict".

"I feel deep sorrow and anger over the verdict," Ted Hui told the BBC's Newsday on Monday. "I think the target of the regime is not genuine criminal conduct - not at all - but voices that stood for democracy, freedom and pluralism."

The suggestion that Lai was given a fair trial, Hui added, is "laughable".

"There was no jury trial, he was not allowed to have his own lawyer, and you call this a fair trial?" he said.

"Jimmy Lai is an old man in his eighties. This is a death sentence. This is political torture, which is unacceptable internationally."

Image source, Getty Images

In the lead-up to Lai's sentencing, Prime Minister Keir Starmer and the UK government had been criticised for not doing enough to advocate for the 78-year-old's release.

Following Keir Starmer's visit to Beijing in late January - the first by a British Prime Minister in eight years - the UK’s All-Party Parliamentary Group on Arbitrary Detention and Hostage Affairs issued a statement saying that “an opportunity to secure [Jimmy Lai’s] release has been squandered by weak diplomacy”.

“These opportunities will cost Jimmy Lai his life,” the group said.

Days after Starmer's Beijing visit, Lai's son Sebastien also denounced it as a wasted opportunity.

“If it is so important, then surely there should be some conditionalities put on my father’s release," the younger Lai said last week at a parliamentary hearing on his father’s case, according to The Guardian.

"The trip was a big thing to have been given away."

The UK says it "will rapidly engage further" with Chinese authorities on Lai's case.

"British national Jimmy Lai was today sentenced to 20 years in prison... for a 78-year-old, this is tantamount to a life sentence," foreign secretary Yvette Cooper said in a statement posted by the Foreign Office on X.

"I again call on the Hong Kong authorities to end his appalling ordeal and release him on humanitarian grounds, so that he may be reunited with his family. We stand with the people of Hong Kong."

Image source, Getty Images

Hong Kong's chief executive John Lee Ka-chiu has celebrated Jimmy Lai's sentencing as "deeply gratifying", describing his crimes as "heinous" and "utterly despicable".

"For a long time, Lai used Apple Daily to poison the minds of citizens, incite hatred, distort facts, deliberately create social division, glorify violence, and openly beg external forces to sanction China and the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region," Lee wrote in a Facebook post on Monday afternoon.

"Jimmy Lai's heinous acts endangering national security have harmed the interests of the country and the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, as well as the interests of the citizens."

Lee, who has previously welcomed convictions against Lai, also characterised today's sentencing as "a significant milestone in Hong Kong's efforts to safeguard national security".

Lai's 20-year sentence is is the harshest to be given under Hong Kong's controversial national security law.

Jimmy Lai has been sentenced to 20 years in jail under Hong Kong's controversial, Beijing-imposed national security law.

Lai, 78, previously spoke to the BBC about the law and its implications for Hong Kong, while his son Sebastian warned that his father would likely die in prison if sentenced.

BBC News journalist Phoebe Kong explains how we got here.

Yvette Tan
Live editor

It's just past 13:15 in Hong Kong (05:15 GMT), and several hours since pro-democracy tycoon Jimmy Lai was sentenced to 20 years in prison.

Here's a quick recap to get you up to speed:

• Lee was sentenced to 20 years, the harshest sentence to be given under Hong Kong's controversial national security law
• The sentencing, which comes just a few months after Lai was found guilty of national security offences in December, was over in just around ten minutes
• Other defendants, including six former Apple Daily executives and two activists who were also in court today, received sentences ranging from six years to 10 years
• A number of human rights and media organisations have condemned Lai's sentence and called on the governments of China and Hong Kong to free him
• Law's charges comprised two counts of conspiring to collude with foreign forces under the National Security Law, and one count of publishing seditious material on the now-defunct Apple Daily newspaper, which he founded, under a separate colonial-era law

Stay with us as we bring you more updates, reactions and analysis.

The head of Hong Kong police's National Security Department has defended Lai's 20-year sentence as "appropriate", according to Reuters.

Chief superintendent Steve Li was speaking after Lai's conviction in a Hong Kong court on Monday.

Lai, 78, received the harshest sentence to be given under Hong Kong's controversial national security law, which China says is necessary for the city's stability

Following the verdict, Li further said that claims of Lai's frail health were "exaggerated".

Lai's barrister had said he suffers from hypertension and diabetes, among other ailments, but the court said it was "not inclined" to hand Lai a lower sentence on account of his medical condition.

Image source, Getty Images

In addition to the penalties handed down to Lai on Monday, the court also convicted a number of former colleagues from his Apple Daily newspaper.

Those affiliated with Apple Daily included former editor-in-chief Ryan Law Wai-kwong, former executive editor-in-chief Lam Man-chung, former senior editorial writer Fung Wai-kong, former lead editorial writer Yeung Ching-kee, former associate publisher Chan Pui-man, and Cheung Kim-hung, former chief executive of Next Digital, the media company that owned Apple Daily.

Yeung, Chan and Cheung were considered "accomplice witnesses": they not only pleaded guilty but also gave evidence for the prosecution, and were therefore given reduced sentences, according to court documents.

Law, Lam and Fung did not give evidence or assist the prosecution, and so each of their sentences was reduced to the statutory minimum of 10 years’ imprisonment for their guilty pleas.