HONG KONG—Jailed Hong Kong media tycoon and dissident of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) Jimmy Lai was given a new prison sentence of 14 months on Friday over his role in a pro-democracy assembly on Oct. 1, 2019.
This month, Lai—who is already serving sentences adding up to 14 months for participating in similar demonstrations on Aug. 18 and Aug. 31, 2019—and nine other activists pleaded guilty in District Court to organizing an unauthorized assembly.
He has been in jail since December after being denied bail in a separate “national security” trial, which has highlighted Beijing’s takeover of Hong Kong’s judicial system. Lai faces three charges under the new law, imposed on the former British colony by Beijing in 2020.
Lai’s repeated arrests have drawn criticism from Western governments and international rights groups, who raised concerns over waning freedoms in the global financial hub, including freedom of speech and assembly.
Beijing has labeled Guangzhou-born Lai as a traitor and an “anti-China” instigator for his criticism of the CCP.
The sweeping security law punishes anything the CCP considers as “subversion, secession, terrorism, and collusion with foreign forces” with up to life in prison. The regime claims its new Hong Kong law is vital to “restore stability and prosperity” despite widespread outrage from Hongkongers and the international community.
Judge Amanda Woodcock, who handed Lai his previous illegal assembly sentence in April, delivered the sentence on Friday. She said part of the new sentence would be served consecutively, meaning Lai faces a total of 20 months in prison so far.
Woodcock said she found claims by some of the defendants that their march on Oct. 1, China’s national day, would be peaceful to be “naive and unrealistic.”
There were major clashes that day, including a live round shot by a policeman at a protester, the first use of a handgun after months of demonstrations.
Activists Figo Chan, Lee Cheuk-yan, Albert Ho, and Leung Kwok-hung, who is known in Hong Kong as Long Hair, were sentenced to 18 months for each of two charges in this case, with the sentences to be served concurrently.
“Your Honour, for over 40 years I have strived for democratic reform in China,” Lee told the court this week during one of the hearings. “This is my unrequited love, the love for my country with such a heavy heart.”
The sentence comes two weeks after authorities froze assets belonging to Lai, including bank accounts and his 71.26 percent stake in media publisher Next Digital.
Hong Kong’s security chief sent letters to Lai and branches of HSBC and Citibank this month threatening up to seven years in prison for any dealings with the billionaire’s accounts in the city, according to documents seen by Reuters.
The moves could imperil any attempt by the freedom and democracy activist to move offshore assets back home to prop up Next Digital’s troubled Apple Daily tabloid, a staunch government critic, one of Lai’s financial advisers said.
