HONG KONG ¨C Hong Kong media tycoon Jimmy Lai is set to be sentenced on Monday in the financial hub's most high-profile national security case, amid growing calls to free the longstanding critic of the Chinese ?Communist Party whose health is frail.
The sentence comes after a legal saga spanning almost five years with Lai ¡ª ?the founder ?of the now-shuttered Apple Daily newspaper ¡ª after he was convicted of two counts ?of conspiracy to collude with foreign forces on December 15, and one count of publishing seditious materials. He was first arrested in August 2020.
Lai's plight has been criticized by global leaders including U.S. President Donald Trump and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, spotlighting a years-long national security crackdown in the China-ruled Asian financial hub, following mass pro-democracy protests in ?2019.
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