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Hong Kong’s senior national security police officer has said that authorities are “still investigating some matters” after pro-democracy media tycoon Jimmy Lai was sentenced to 20 years in prison.

Speaking on Monday, shortly after Lai?s sentencing hearing, Chief Superintendent Steve Li of the police’s National Security Department welcomed the court’s “imposition of a heavy sentence” on Lai, “demonstrating the court’s determination that his offence [was] of a very serious… nature.”

“Obviously, he has done nothing good for Hong Kong that could serve as a basis for his mitigation,” Li told reporters.

Lai was sentenced to 20 years in prison on Monday, around two months after he was convicted on foreign collusion and sedition charges, under the Beijing-imposed national security law.

The 78-year-old was accused of using his tabloid, Apple Daily, to lobby foreign nations to impose sanctions, blockades, or other hostile activities upon China and Hong Kong. He was also accused of inciting hatred against the authorities with 161 op-eds he allegedly wrote and published in the now-shuttered newspaper.

Li said the police would be in contact with the Department of Justice to consider whether the authorities wanted to seek longer sentences through appeals.

Asked whether the Monday ruling marked the end of prosecutions against Lai, Apple Daily, and related entities, Li said that “we are still investigating some matters,” but he was not at liberty to disclose the investigations.

Asked whether the court’s decision to shorten Lai?s total sentence by two years and one month based on his age and health was at odds with the government’s claims that he was in good health, Li maintained that the tycoon?s health concerns were “exaggerated”.

“As for whether he will live out the rest of his years behind bars, none of us would know,” he said. “But what I can say is that his sentence is certainly deserved.”

Li also said that the sentences of the other eight defendants, which ranged from 6 years and 3 months to 10 years, demonstrated a provision in the national security law allowing defendants who expose criminal conduct of others to receive shorter jail terms.

Publisher Cheung Kim-hung received six years and nine months behind bars, associate publisher Chan Pui-man got seven years, and editorial writer Yeung Ching-kee was sentenced to seven years and three months. They had testified against Lai in exchange for shorter sentences.

Meanwhile, editor-in-chief Ryan Law, executive editor-in-chief Lam Man-chung, and editorial writer Fung Wai-kong all received 10-year jail terms.

Two former activists linked to the international lobby group Stand with Hong Kong, who also testified against Lai, were also jailed. Wayland Chan got six years and three months behind bars, whilst Andy Li received seven years and three months.

Li also decried “external smears and intimidation” against the judiciary and the prosecution.

International press freedom watchdogs and foreign governments have criticised the Hong Kong government over Lai?s national security case.

At a press conference in December, shortly after Lai was found guilty, Li said that the media tycoon’s conviction was “justice served.”

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x James Lee is a reporter at Hong Kong Free Press with an interest in culture and social issues. He graduated with a bachelor’s degree in English and a minor in Journalism from the Chinese University of Hong Kong, where he witnessed the institution’s transformation over the course of the 2019 extradition bill protests and after the passing of the Beijing-imposed security law.

Since joining HKFP in 2023, he has covered local politics, the city’s housing crisis, as well as landmark court cases including the 47 democrats national security trial. He was previously a reporter at The Standard where he interviewed pro-establishment heavyweights and extensively covered the Covid-19 pandemic and Hong Kong’s political overhauls under the national security law.

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