Former Hong Kong media tycoon Jimmy Lai has been found guilty on two national security charges and a lesser sedition charge, in a landmark two-year trial widely viewed as a measure of the city’s shrinking freedoms under Beijing’s rule.

Self-made billionaire Lai, 78, is one of the highest-profile critics of Beijing charged under a sweeping security law imposed on the semi-autonomous city in 2020 following months of huge and sometimes violent pro-democracy protests.

He founded Apple Daily, a fiercely pro-democracy tabloid newspaper known for its blistering broadsides against the Chinese Communist Party until its forced closure in 2021.

Lai had pleaded not guilty to all charges, and now faces possible life in prison. Monday’s verdict marks the end of a tumultuous legal saga that had drawn condemnation from supporters and foreign leaders around the world, including US President Donald Trump – who had once vowed to “get him out.”

The imposition of the national security law has transformed Hong Kong, with authorities jailing dozens of political opponents, forcing civil society groups and outspoken media outlets to disband, and transforming the once-freewheeling city into one ruled by “patriots only.”

Hong Kong and China’s leaders say it has “restored stability” following the 2019 protests.

Lai is a British citizen, and the UK government has previously called for his release. At a news conference in London on Monday, Lai’s son, Sebastian, said he was “heartbroken” about his father’s condition and called on the UK government to do more to secure his freedom.

“Now it’s time to put action behind words, and make my father’s release a precondition to closer relationships with China,” Lai said. “Because how can you expect a fruitful relationship if they can’t even put a 70-year-old man – who’s in such ill health – on a plane and send him back home here in the UK where he belongs?”

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