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.
Prosecutors cited Lai’s lobbying of US politicians during Trump’s first term – much of it before the security law was enacted – as evidence of sedition and colluding with foreign forces, including his meetings with then-Vice President Mike Pence, then-State Secretary Mike Pompeo, and attempts to meet Trump himself.
Hong Kong authorities have repeatedly rejected claims Lai’s trial was politically motivated and maintain the city’s judicial system adheres to the rule of law.
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