Who is Jimmy Lai, the HK Meda Tycoon to try for National Security Crimes?

Tied together to some as a hero and scorned by others as a traitor, pro-democracy pro-democario of Hong Kong that Tycoon Jimmy Lai was the final security settlement.

Ending arguments began Thursday for Lai, accused of changing foreign forces under a Beijing security law.

The attempt to get international attention, with the Prime Minister of UK Sir Keir Starmmer calls for Lai’s release. The 77-year-old British as well as China’s ciamship – even if China did not recognize double nationalities, and therefore considered Lai exclusively Chinese.

Lai has been imprisoned since December 2020 and faced the highest set of criminal imprisonment if he was convicted.

Lai’s critical cases say how the Hong Kong’s legal system is made of silence in political opposition.

Lai is a steady thorn side of China. Unlike other tycoons arriving at Hong Kong, Mr Lai became one of the most fierce critics of China’s state and a leading number that promotes democracy in the former British territory.

“I was born rebel,” he told the BBC in an interview with 2020, hours before he was charged. “I have an invading character.”

He is the most popular person charged under The controversial law of national security Which china is introduced by 2020, in response to many protests destroyed in Hong Kong last year.

Legislation disturbing a wider thing that insists on acts that beijing subversions and serving, among other things.

Beijing said the National Security Law is necessary to maintain the strength of Hong Kong but says it is effectively violated.

Over the years, Lai’s son Sebastien called his release. In February, the younger brother was encouraged to have the Stillmer and US President Donald Trump to ask for an urgent action, adding that the “body of his father breaks”.

Lai was born in Guangzhou, a town in southern China, in a rich family lost all when the Communists had power in 1949.

He was 12 years old in his flight in his village in Mainland China, arriving at Hong Kong as a boat in a boat.

While working odd jobs and nurture a small clothing shirt he taught in his own English. He left from a menial role to finally establish a million dollar empire including international branded brand.

The chain is a great success. But when China sent the tanks to crush pro-democracy protests in Tiananmen Square in Beijing in 1989, Lai began a new activities of democracy as well as a businessman.

He began writing the pillars who criticized the massacre followed Beijing demonstrations and established a publication of the house that became an influence in Hong Kong.

As China responded by threatening to shut his stores on the mainland, Leading him to sell the company, Lai launched a string of popular pro-democracy titles that included next, a digital magazine, and the widely read apple daily newspaper.

In a local field of media fearing Beijing, Lai is a steady critic of China authorities through his publications and writing.

He saw him a hero for many Hong Kong, who looked at him as a valiant man who took risks to protect the city’s freedoms.

But in the mainland he looked as a “traitor” threatening the security of the National National National.

In recent years, the attackers on the mask that fired at home and company company. He is also the target of a murder plot.

But none of the threats stopped him to wipe his views firmly. He is a famous part of the pro-democracy demonstrations in the city and arrested twice with 2021 in illegal assembly fees.

When China passed the new security law in Hong Kong in June 2020, Lai told the BBC with the “death death” for territory.

The influential businessman also warned Hong Kong would be as bad as China. Without the law rule, he said, your wonderful condition as a global financial hub “completely destroyed”.

The media mogul is known for his reality and acts of wipe.

In 2021, he encouraged Donald Trump to help the territory, saying he “only saved us” from China. His newspaper, apple daily, prints one letter ahead completed: “Mr President, please help us.”

For Lai, such acts are required to protect the city that brings him and stirs his success.

He used to say News Agency AFP: “I came without anything, the freedom of this place gave me everything … maybe it paid for that freedom by fighting it.”

Lai was stripped by different charges – including unauthorized assembly and fraud – since 2020.

He was in custody since December of the year.

The Prosecence of Lai has obtained international attention, with groups of rights and foreign governments that encourage his release.

For years, Sebastien Lai traveled to the world to criticize his father’s arrest and condemned Hong Kong for punishment for “attitudes that needed”.

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