Hong Kong Tycoon Jimmy Lai Faces Sentencing Monday After National Security Conviction

• Pro-democracy former media tycoon Jimmy Lai will be sentenced on Monday, February 9, following his December conviction under Beijing's national security law.
• Lai, 78, founder of the now-defunct Apple Daily, faces potential life imprisonment in a case criticized by foreign governments.
• He was arrested in 2020 under the national security law, having been an outspoken critic of China's Communist Party.
• The trial is seen as a decline in press freedom in Hong Kong, though the city's government denies this.
• Lai was found guilty of conspiring with foreign forces and publishing seditious articles, charges he pleaded not guilty to.