Hong Kong media mogul Jimmy Lai’s national security trial has wrapped up after nearly two years of proceedings.

The case against Lai, 77, has drawn the attention of world leaders and global rights groups, with observers closely watching the outcome as a barometer of the financial hub’s rule of law and freedoms.

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Closing arguments in the trial finished on Thursday, following repeated delays due to bad weather and concerns over Lai’s health, with the date for the verdict to be set at a later date.

Here’s what you need to know:

Who is Jimmy Lai?

Long before his national security trial, Lai was known as one of Hong Kong’s most famous rags-to-riches stories.

After fleeing China for then-British Hong Kong as a child in the 1950s, he built up a business empire in the city over several decades.

His business interests included the now-shuttered pro-democracy tabloid Apple Daily.

Lai was known as one of the few members of Hong Kong’s business elite to criticise the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), which took control of Hong Kong in 1997, and openly support the city’s democracy movement.

Steve Tsang, director of the SOAS China Institute in the United Kingdom, said Lai’s activism put a target on his back for prosecution.

“From Beijing’s perspective, Jimmy Lai stands out as he is the highest profile and [most] persistent tycoon who used his fortune to support the democracy movement in Hong Kong, and thus challenges the authority of the CCP,” Tsang told Al Jazeera.

“To them, this makes Lai a traitor who must be severely punished,” Tsang said, adding that the Chinese authorities believe Lai must be reprimanded in a “high-profile way to scare others from following the same path”.

What are the charges?

Lai was arrested in August 2020, shortly after Beijing imposed a national security law on Hong Kong, criminalising secession, subversion, terrorism and collusion with foreign forces.

After numerous delays to the start of his trial, court proceedings finally got under way in December 2023.

Lai faces two counts of conspiring with foreign forces under the Beijing-decreed national security law, and one count of sedition under a colonial-era statute.

Prosecutors have accused Lai of encouraging Hong Kong residents to join antigovernment protests that swept the city in 2019, and urging the United States and other foreign countries to sanction the Hong Kong and Chinese governments.

If found guilty under the national security law, Lai could face life imprisonment.

Lai, who has already been convicted of multiple offences in separate cases related to unauthorised assembly and fraud, has pleaded not guilty to all charges.

Why is his trial controversial?

The charges against Lai have been portrayed by United Nations observers and Western governments as politically motivated.

There have also been many irregularities throughout his prosecution, according to Eric Yan-ho Lai, a research fellow at the Georgetown Center for Asian Law in Washington, DC.

“He has been put in solitary confinement and is suffering from arbitrary detention,” Lai, who is no relation, told Al Jazeera, citing findings by the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention.

“He has been convicted on multiple charges of public order and commercial fraud, but analysts saw that was a tactic to keep him in jail as a prisoner before his trial commenced.”

Lai also noted that the tycoon was also denied his lawyer of choice, London-based Timothy Owen, after Beijing overrode the Hong Kong courts to block his involvement in the case on national security grounds.

What does Hong Kong say?

The Hong Kong government has said Lai’s case is being “handled strictly on the basis of evidence and in accordance with the law”, and characterised criticism of the trial as a “smear campaign”.

The government has also warned that commenting on the case could be seen as “an attempt to interfere with the court to exercise judicial power independently” and “constitute perverting the court of justice”.

Hong Kong authorities have also repeatedly defended the national security law from criticism by Western governments and human rights groups, arguing that the legislation was necessary to restore peace and stability to the former British colony after the 2019 protests turned violent.

When is the verdict expected?

The court has yet to set a date for the verdict, but it could take weeks, or even months, to announce its decision.

Lai’s guilt or innocence will be decided by three national security judges chosen by the chief executive of Hong Kong, who is answerable to Beijing.

Tsang said he was “99.99 percent sure” the court will find Lai guilty on all counts.

His view is shared by many observers, given Lai’s prominence and increased government influence on Hong Kong’s judicial system.

Since June 30, 2020, Hong Kong has arrested 271 people for national security offences, formally charged 147 individuals and organisations, and found 108 people guilty, according to the US consulate in Hong Kong.

In 2024, Hong Kong adopted a second, locally drafted national security law, which covers treason, insurrection, sabotage, external interference, sedition, and theft of state secrets and espionage.