Hong Kong court jails Jimmy Lai for 20 years
Global News Podcast
BBC
4.3 • 8.2K Ratings
🗓️ 9 February 2026
⏱️ 28 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
A court in Hong Kong has sentenced the tycoon and pro-democracy campaigner Jimmy Lai to 20 years in prison. Mr Lai, who is a British citizen, was found guilty of foreign collusion and publishing seditious material, but his family says it was a political trial. The British government has expanded its visa scheme to more people living in Hong Kong in response to the sentence. Also: the Japanese prime minister Sanae Takaichi says she hopes to pursue major reforms after her resounding victory in the general election on Sunday; the dilemma for prosecutors in France as identical twins, with nearly the same DNA, are accused of murder; and the Ghanaian guitarist, composer and band leader Ebo Taylor has died at the age of 90.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, podcasts. |
| 0:05.6 | This is the Global News podcast from the BBC World Service. |
| 0:12.0 | I'm Celia Hatton, and at 1600 GMT on Monday, the 9th of February. |
| 0:17.4 | These are our main stories. |
| 0:19.3 | Jimmy Lai, the billionaire who once stood at the heart of |
| 0:22.4 | Hong Kong's push for democracy, is slated to spend the next 20 years in prison. We'll bring |
| 0:27.9 | you reaction from the Chinese territory and beyond. Plus, we'll go to Tokyo. Fresh after her |
| 0:33.9 | landslide election win, what does Sinai Takaiichi have planned for Japan? |
| 0:41.0 | Also in this podcast, a murder trial in France that's been complicated by identical twin |
| 0:47.2 | brothers having nearly the same DNA. And have you ever gone to work with a hangover, what alcohol |
| 0:53.8 | does to our brains? |
| 0:55.6 | Effectively, it takes at least a clear day and another night of sleep because your brain struggles with the dehydration. |
| 1:08.0 | First, he's an entrepreneur who founded a fashion empire and made billions. |
| 1:13.4 | But then Jimmy Lai turned to politics, building a major media conglomerate that supported the idea that Hong Kong, a Chinese territory, could transform itself into a democracy. |
| 1:25.6 | For years, Jimmy Lai was at the heart of youth-driven push for |
| 1:29.8 | democracy there. And then, Beijing wiped out that movement, asserting its rule by imposing |
| 1:35.9 | tough national security regulations on Hong Kong. Jimmy Lai's media network was shut down, |
| 1:42.7 | and in December, he was found guilty of violating those national |
| 1:46.8 | security laws. Today, the 78-year-old was sentenced to 20 years in prison. The leadership in |
| 1:53.7 | Beijing defended the sentence, saying it was legitimate. Chinese state media called the sentence |
| 1:59.1 | a stern warning to others. The British government responded |
| 2:03.0 | to the sentence by expanding its visa scheme to more people living in Hong Kong, saying it showed |
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