Hong Kong pro-democracy campaigner and media tycoon Jimmy Lai has been found guilty of colluding with foreign forces under the city’s controversial national security law (NSL).

The 78-year-old UK citizen, who has been in jail since December 2020, pleaded not guilty. He faces life in prison and is expected to be sentenced early next year.

Lai used his now-defunct Apple Daily newspaper as part of a wider effort to lobby foreign governments to impose sanctions on Hong Kong and China, the court found.

Hong Kong chief executive John Lee welcomed the verdict, noting that Lai’s actions “damaged the country’s interests and the welfare of Hong Kongers”. Rights groups called it “a cruel judicial farce”.

They say the NSL, which Beijing defends as essential for the city’s stability, has been used to crush dissent.

Delivering the verdict on Monday, Judge Esther Toh said there is “no doubt” that Jimmy Lai “harboured hatred” for the People’s Republic of China (PRC), citing his “constant invitation to the US to help bring down the government of the PRC with the excuse of helping the people of Hong Kong”.

When Lai testified in November, he denied all the charges against him, saying he had “never” used his foreign contacts to influence foreign policy on Hong Kong.

Asked about his meeting with then US Vice President Mike Pence, Lai said he did not ask anything of him: “I would just relay to him what happened in Hong Kong when he asked me.”

He was also asked about his meeting with then-secretary of state Mike Pompeo, to which he said he had asked Pompeo, “not to do something but to say something, to voice support for Hong Kong”.

Lai, one of the fiercest critics of the Chinese state, was a key figure in the pro-democracy protests that engulfed Hong Kong in 2019. Beijing responded to the months-long demonstrations, which sometimes erupted into violent clashes with police, by introducing the NSL.

The law was enacted without consulting the Hong Kong legislature and gave authorities broad powers to charge and jail people they deemed a threat to the city’s law and order, or the government’s stability.

Lai was accused of violating the NSL for his role in the protests and also through his tabloid Apple Daily, which became a standard bearer for the pro-democracy movement.

Monday’s ruling also found Lai guilty of publishing seditious material on Apple Daily under a separate colonial-era law.

Lai appeared calm as the verdict was read out and waved goodbye to his family as he was escorted out of the courtroom. Lai’s wife Teresa and one of his sons were in court, along with Cardinal Joseph Zen, a long-time friend who baptised Lai in 1997.

“Mr Lai’s spirit is okay,” his lawyer Robert Pang said after the verdict. “The judgement is so long that we’ll need some time to study it first. I don’t have anything to add at the moment.” He did not say whether they would appeal.

Jimmy Lai’s son Sebastien urged the UK government to “do more” to help free his father.

“It’s time to put action behind words and make my father’s release a precondition to closer relationships with China,” he told a press conference in London.

The UK condemned what it described as “politically motivated persecution” of Lai, saying he had been “targeted… for peacefully exercising his right to freedom of expression”.

“The UK has repeatedly called for the National Security Law to be repealed and for an end to the prosecution of all individuals charged under it,” the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office said in a statement on Monday.

“The Chinese government abused Jimmy Lai with the aim of silencing all those who dare to criticise the CCP [Chinese Communist Party],” said Elaine Pearson, Asia director at Human Rights Watch, following the verdict.

“In the face of the farce of Jimmy Lai’s case, governments should pressure the authorities to withdraw the case and release him immediately.”

Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun responded to the criticism “by certain countries”.

“China expresses strong dissatisfaction and firm opposition to the brazen defamation and smearing of the judicial system in Hong Kong,” he told reporters.

Western governments, including the UK and US, have for years called for Lai’s release, which Beijing and Hong Kong have rejected.

US President Donald Trump had earlier vowed to “do everything to save” Lai, while UK PM Keir Starmer had said securing his release was a “priority”.

Lai’s trial came to be widely seen as yet another test of judicial independence for Hong Kong’s courts, which have been accused of toeing Beijing’s line since 2019, when it tightened its control over the city.

Hong Kong authorities insist the rule of law is intact but critics point to the hundreds of protesters and activists who have been jailed under the NSL – and its nearly 100% conviction rate as of May this year.

Bail is also often denied in NSL cases and that was the case with Lai too, despite rights groups and Lai’s children raising concerns about his deteriorating health. He has reportedly been held in solitary confinement.

Sebastien Lai told the BBC earlier this year that his father’s “body is breaking down” – “Given his age, given his health… he will die in prison.”

The Hong Kong government has also been criticised for barring foreign lawyers from working on NSL cases without prior permission. They said it was a national security risk, although foreign lawyers had operated in the city’s courts for decades. Subsequently Lai was denied his choice of lawyer, who was based in the UK.

Lai now joins dozens of figures of the city’s pro-democracy movement who have been sentenced to prison under the NSL.

The chief of Hong Kong’s national security police addressed the media after the verdict, saying Lai had “fabricated news” in pursuit of “political goals”.

On the mainland, state-run Global Times quoted a Hong Kong election committee member as saying that the case sends a “clear message”: “Any attempt to split the country or undermine Hong Kong’s prosperity and stability will be met with severe punishment under the law.”

Lai, who was born in mainland China, fled to Hong Kong when he was 12 years old and got his footing as a businessman after founding the international clothing brand Giordano.

His journey as a democracy activist began after China brutally crushed pro-democracy protests in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square in 1989.

Lai started writing columns criticising the massacre and went on to launch a string of popular pro-democracy publications, including Apple Daily and Next.

Even now, many Hong Kongers see him as a leading voice for democracy – about 80 people had queued to enter the court ahead of the verdict on Monday.

One of them was Ms Lam who didn’t want to share her full name. An apple in hand, she said she started queuing around 11:00 local time on Sunday – nearly a full day before the session – because dozens of people had come before her. It was a cold night, she said, but she did it because she had wanted to wish Lai good luck.

“We all feel frustrated and powerless. Yet, there must be an ending to the whole issue and time comes when it comes,” a former Apple Daily journalist, who was also in court, told the BBC.

“Jimmy always said that he was indebted to Hong Kong… but I think Hong Kong and most Hong Kongers are so grateful to have him upholding the core values, good faith and integrity for the community at the expense of his well being and personal freedom.”

In his testimony, Lai had said that he had “never allowed” his newspaper’s staff to advocate for Hong Kong independence, which he described as a “conspiracy” and “too crazy to think about”.

“The core values of Apple Daily are actually the core values of the people of Hong Kong,” he had said. These values, he added, include the “rule of law, freedom, pursuit of democracy, freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom of assembly”.