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Hong Kong media tycoon Jimmy Lai was sentenced to 13-month imprisonment on Monday for participating in last year's banned Tiananmen Massacre vigil.
A district court in Hong Kong also convicted seven others people on similar charges and was handed jail terms of between four and a half to 14 months in jail, Xinhua news agency reported. Jimmy Lai, the founder of Next Digital was already serving sentence under other charges. He has been charged with crimes that include violating the security law. In June, Hong Kong authorities had frozen the outlet's bank account and it resulted in the closure of its flagship newspaper Apple Daily. Apple Daily faced advertising boycotts despite being widely read. Next Digital had stressed that it had been forced to close before any of the cases against its senior figures had gone to trial. Last year, the commemorative vigil was banned by the police citing COVID-19 concerns. The Tiananmen Square protests were student-led demonstrations held in Tiananmen Square, Beijing in 1989. It is estimated that hundreds, perhaps thousands, of people died when the People's Liberation Army were deployed to crackdown on protesters in Beijing, ending months of student-led demonstrations in China on June 4, 1989, Hong Kong Free Press (HKFP) reported. The group behind Hong Kong's annual Tiananmen Massacre vigil had faced increasing pressure from the government, and members decided to disband the group in September. The group itself and several of its members are also facing charges under the Beijing-imposed national security law. The national security law was imposed by Beijing on Hong Kong as a response to anti-China protests that roiled Hong Kong. (ANI)
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