Hong Kong court begins mitigation hearing for Jimmy Lai before sentencing

The proceedings for Jimmy Lai's National Security Trial case have begun as the Hong Kong court started hearing pleas for the accused to be given a lenient sentence.

Lawyers of media tycoon Jimmy Lai, who was found guilty last month in a case that has been widely condemned as politically motivated, have four days to convince judges that he deserves a lighter sentence after a high-profile national security trial.

As reported by the Independent, the four-day mitigation plea process is the final step before sentencing in Lai’s landmark national security trial, which could see the ailing pro-democracy activist jailed for life.

78-year-old Lai founded the now-shuttered Apple Daily newspaper and was a passionate advocate for the city’s democratic freedoms.

The court found Lai guilty of two counts of conspiracy to collude with foreign forces and conspiracy to publish seditious material in December 2025.

His conviction has raised international concerns about the curtailing of press freedom and human rights in the former British colony, which returned to Chinese rule in 1997.

Leaders from around the world have criticized Lai’s conviction, with the British government calling it a “politically motivated prosecution” and demanding his immediate release.

The US President, Donald Trump, who had discussed Lai’s case with China, said he felt “so badly” and would keep raising the matter with China’s Xi Jinping.

The verdict was criticized by Britain, the European Union, the United States and others.

However, the Hong Kong authorities said Lai received a fair trial and the national security law has restored stability to the city.

Hearings such as Monday's give defence lawyers the chance to seek a more lenient jail term than the 10 years to life imprisonment Lai could face for his convictions, set out by guidelines in the security law.

Lai sat in the glass dock with eight trial defendants, including two key prosecution witnesses, Andy Li and Wayland Chan Tsz-wah, separated by half a dozen prison guards.

Lai, alongside other co-defendants involved in the case, is pleading for a shorter sentence during the four-day mitigation hearings

Hong Kong's High Court began hearing for the mitigation plea of pro-democracy tycoon Jimmy Lai on Monday, January 12, 2026, as the final step before sentencing in a landmark national security trial that could see Lai jailed for life.

As reported, the maximum penalty for their convictions is life imprisonment, while sentencing will come later.