Jimmy Lai will not appeal his national security conviction or the 20-year prison sentence he received last month, according to his legal team in Hong Kong. The decision was announced March 6 by Lai’s lawyers, who told The Associated Press by text message that they have clear instructions not to pursue an appeal.
The lawyers said, “We can confirm we have clear and definitive instructions not to lodge an appeal against conviction or sentence.” They did not provide a reason for the decision, but the move ends the immediate appellate effort following Lai’s conviction.
Lai, the founder of the now-defunct Apple Daily, was found guilty in December of conspiracy to collude with foreign forces and of conspiring with others to publish seditious articles. The conviction capped a legal battle that the lawyers described as yearslong, after Lai was sentenced to 20 years in prison last month.
The case has become a focal point in debates over Hong Kong’s freedoms under a national security law imposed by Beijing. Lai, 78, was among the first prominent figures arrested under the law in 2020, and within a year some of Apple Daily’s senior journalists were also arrested before the newspaper shut down in June 2021. After the sentencing, concerns were raised that he could spend the rest of his life in prison.
Hong Kong’s government has defended the outcome as reflecting the rule of law, saying the defendants’ actions had nothing to do with a free press. The government said defendants used news reporting as a pretext for acts that harmed China and Hong Kong, while observers have said the conviction reflected a broader decline of press and other freedoms in the city.
Lai is also a British citizen, and his family had previously said that a visit by U.S. President Donald Trump to Beijing could be crucial to securing his release. The White House confirmed that Trump will travel to China from March 31 through April 2 to meet Chinese leader Xi Jinping, though Beijing has not yet confirmed any details, according to the AP report.
In London, U.K. Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper said Lai was sentenced for exercising freedom of expression and called on Hong Kong authorities to release him on humanitarian grounds. Chinese and Hong Kong authorities have said the sentencing was consistent with the rule of law, and they have defended the legal process.
Wilson Chan, co-founder of the Pagoda Institute, said one potential path for Lai’s release could be a pardon from the city leader under a diplomatic solution, noting that Beijing has previously granted medical parole to mainland prisoners while Hong Kong does not have a medical parole provision. Chan said not appealing may be a basic requirement for Beijing to consider a diplomatic solution, but he said it does not guarantee any outcome.
Chan predicted that the chance of a diplomatic solution from a Trump-Xi meeting would be slim, even though the two leaders are likely to discuss Lai. He said resolving Lai’s case would not be Trump’s priority and that Beijing would have other considerations, including maintaining Hong Kong’s judicial independence under the “one country, two systems” framework.
The report also placed Lai’s legal developments against a backdrop of broader U.S.-China tensions, including trade, the economy and Taiwan. It noted that before the national security sentencing, Washington and Beijing had already been at odds on multiple issues.
Finally, the AP report said Lai won an appeal last week to quash his convictions and sentence in a separate fraud case. It said that ruling could reduce his total prison time, while the government earlier said the Department of Justice would study the fraud judgment and consider whether to appeal further.