Jimmy Lai's supporters queue in Hong Kong overnight for verdict

By James ‌Pomfret and Jessie Pang

HONG KONG, Dec 15 (Reuters) - Supporters of Hong Kong democracy activist Jimmy Lai queued outside a Hong ‍Kong court ‌overnight before Monday's verdict in his landmark trial as international calls have grown to release the China critic who has already ⁠spent five years in jail.

Lai, 78, the millionaire founder of ‌the now-shuttered Apple Daily newspaper and one of the most prominent critics of China's increasingly tight controls under President Xi Jinping, has pleaded not guilty to the three charges against him.

Two counts - of conspiracy to collude with foreign forces to endanger national security - carry prison terms of up ⁠to life in prison for Lai, a British citizen.

Lai's hearing in Hong Kong's High Court, starting at 10 a.m. (0200 GMT), bookends a year of the essential ​disappearance of Hong Kong's democratic opposition, with the city's largest opposition, the Democratic ‌Party, voting to disband on Sunday under pressure from Beijing.

Outside ⁠the courthouse, people formed a queue more than a block long, some with camping gear, seeking the 507 tickets to the courthouse - 58 for Lai's courtroom and the rest for overflow viewing by video link.

Scores of police were deployed around ​the area.

Lai's 156-day trial, which began in December 2023, is the highest-profile use of Beijing's sweeping national security law in the former British colony that reverted to Chinese rule in 1997, with the verdict looming as a potential fresh diplomatic flashpoint.

Countries including the U.S. and Britain, as well as rights groups, say the trial is politically motivated and have called for Lai's ​immediate release. President ‍Donald Trump raised Lai's case with ​Xi in a meeting in October and has said he would do his utmost to "save" Lai.

"Jimmy Lai has endured five years in prison under appalling conditions simply for doing his job as a founder of one of the most renowned and independent media outlets in Hong Kong," the media advocacy group Reporters Without Borders said in a statement. "The trial can only be described as a sham and has nothing to do with the rule of law."

The Chinese and Hong Kong governments say the tycoon is receiving a ⁠fair trial and that the national security law treats all equally. They say no freedoms are absolute when it comes to safeguarding national security.

Lai's family say his health has worsened ​after more than 1,800 days in solitary confinement, and that he suffers from diabetes, high blood pressure and heart palpitations.

His verdict comes at a delicate moment for Hong Kong, where residents have been mourning after a fire last month killed at least 160 people in one of the worst blazes in a residential complex globally in recent years.

Chinese ‌national security authorities have warned they would crack down on any "anti-China" individuals who tried to use the fire to "plunge Hong Kong back into the chaos" of 2019, when massive pro-democracy protests triggered a political crisis.

(Reporting by Hong Kong Newsroom; Editing by William Mallard)