Who is Jimmy Lai, HK Media Tycoon in a national security crime trial?

Welcome by some as a hero and despised by others as a traitor, Hong Kong’s prosemocratic tycoon is in the last stage of his national security process.

The final arguments begin on Thursday for Lai, which has been accused of agreement with foreign forces in accordance with the National Security Act imposed by Beijing.

The process has attracted international attention, with the United Kingdom Prime Minister Sir Kiir Starmer called for LAI’s liberation. The 77-year-old has British as well as Chinese citizenship, although China does not recognize dual nationality and therefore considers LAI extremely Chinese.

Lai has been detained since December 2020 and has been sentenced to a maximum sentence for life imprisonment if convicted.

Critics say Lai’s case shows how Hong Kong’s legal system was armed to silence the political opposition.

Lai was a constant thorn on China. Unlike other tycoon, who rose to the top in Hong Kong, D -Lai has become one of the most jerk critics of the Chinese state and a leading figure that is advocating for democracy in the former British territory.

“I was born a rebel,” he told the BBC in an interview in 2020, hours before he was accused. “I have a very disobedient character.”

He is the most famous person accused under the controversial law on national security which China presented in 2020, in response to mass protests that broke out in Hong Kong a year before.

The legislation criminalizes a broader spectrum of disagree acts that Beijing examines the underpour and secession, among other things.

Beijing says the National Security Act is necessary to maintain Hong Kong stability, but critics say it has forbidden disagreement effectively.

Over the years, Lai Sebastien’s son has called for his release. In February, the younger Lai called on Starmer and US President Donald Trump to take emergency action, adding that “his father’s body is being broken down.”

Lai was born in Guangzhou, a city in southern China, into a wealthy family that lost everything when the Communists took power in 1949.

He was 12 years old when he escaped from his village to continental China, arriving in Hong Kong as a fishing boat.

As he worked strange jobs and knit in a small clothing store, he was taught in English. It went from a major role to eventually establish a multimillion -dollar empire, including the international Giordano clothing brand.

The chain was a huge success. But when China sent to tanks to crush the prosthecracy of protests on Beijing Tiananman Square in 1989, Lai began a new journey as a vocal activist of democracy, as well as an entrepreneur.

He began writing columns criticizing the slaughter, which followed the Beijing demonstrations and created a publishing house that became one of the most influential in Hong Kong.

While China reacted by threatening to close its stores in the mainland, which made it sell the company, LAI launches a series of popular pro -depocitical titles including Next, Digital Magazine and the wide read of Apple Daily.

In the local media landscape, increasingly scared than Beijing, Lai was a constant critic of the Chinese authorities, both through his publications and by writing.

This saw him become a hero for many in Hong Kong, who regards him as a man of courage, who took great risks of protecting the freedom of the city.

But on the continent, it is regarded as a “traitor” that threatens Chinese national security.

In recent years, it has been masked by the strikers of Firebombed Lai House and Company. He was also the purpose of a plot for murder.

But none of the threats prevented him from broadcasting his views. He was a prominent part of the demonstrations of prodemocracy in the city and was arrested twice in 2021 on charges of illegal meetings.

When China passed the new Hong Kong National Security Act in June 2020, Lai told the BBC that it sounded “death of death” for the territory.

The influential entrepreneur also warned that Hong Kong would become as corrupt as China. Without the rule of law, he said, his coveted status as a global financial center will be “completely destroyed”.

The media tycoon is known for its honesty and acts of flame.

In 2021, he called on Donald Trump to help the territory, saying he was “the only one who can save us” from China. His Apple Daily newspaper publishes a letter on the front page, which ended: “Mr. President, please help us.”

For barking, such actions were needed to protect the city, which took it and nourished its success.

He once told the News Agency AFP: “I came here with nothing, the freedom to this place gave me everything … It may be time to come back for this freedom by fighting for it.”

LAI is mildew with various accusations – including unauthorized assembly and fraud from 2020.

He has been in custody since December of the same year.

The LAI prosecutor’s office has attracted international attention, with groups for rights and foreign governments insisting on its release.

Over the years, Sebastien Lai has toured the world to condemn his father’s arrest and condemn Hong Kong for punishment “Characteristics to be celebrated.”

“My father is in prison for the truth of his lips, courage in his heart and freedom in his soul,” he said.