Jimmy Lai, 78, founder of Apple Daily, was convicted by a three-judge panel in Hong Kong of sedition and of conspiring to collude with foreign forces, a verdict that exposes him to a potential life sentence after a 156-day juryless trial.The panel issued an 855-page judgment citing 161 publications, including Apple Daily articles, opinion programmes and social media posts, and pointed to meetings in mid-2019 with Donald Trump, Mike Pence and Mike Pompeo as evidence that Lai sought sanctions and other hostile measures against China.Claire Lai, 29, who is in the United States, appealed for compassion and urged authorities not to let her father die a martyr in prison, while
Amnesty International,
Reporters Without Borders and other foreign governments publicly condemned the verdict and called for his release.