Jimmy Lai, a former Hong Kong media mogul and one of the city's most outspoken critics of Beijing, will hear the long-awaited verdict in his landmark national security trial in a Hong Kong court on Monday. He could face life in prison if convicted. Lai, 78, was arrested in August 2020 under a Beijing-imposed national security law that was implemented following massive anti-government protests in 2019. During his five years in custody, Lai has been sentenced for several lesser offences, and when he was last seen in court in August he appeared to have grown more frail and thinner. Lai's trial, heard by three judges approved by the government without a jury present, has been closely monitored by the US, Britain, the European Union and political observers as a barometer of media freedom and judicial independence in the former British colony, which returned to Chinese rule in 1997. His verdict is also a test for Beijing's diplomatic ties. US President Donald Trump said he has raised the