The international legal team for Hong Kong ex-media mogul Jimmy Lai is urging the US and UK to strike a deal for his release, as the septuagenarian’s trial under a Beijing-imposed security law enters its eleventh hour.

But instead of fleeing the enclave when Beijing imposed a widely criticized national security law (NSL), arrested pro-democracy politicians and otherwise clamped down on free-wheeling Hong Kong, the elder Lai decided to stay.

A Hong Kong court has sentenced the first two people under a tough new Hong Kong national security law, including a man who was given 14 months in prison for wearing a T-shirt with a protest slogan.

A Hong Kong man convicted for wearing a "seditious" T-shirt last year was sentenced to 14 months in jail under the city's new security law that continues to crack down on supporters of anti-government demonstrations.

A Hong Kong court sentenced a man to 14 months in prison for wearing a T-shirt with protest slogans, marking the city’s first use of a new national security law to punish people accused of endangering the Chinese state.