The guilty verdict handed down this week to Hong Kong media tycoon and democracy advocate Jimmy Lai was expected but is still devastating, his daughter Claire Lai told CNN’s Jim Sciutto, blaming what she described as the city’s “highly compromised” legal system under Chinese rule.

A 'dark day for democracy': British MP reacts to conviction of Hong Kong tycoon Jimmy Lai

But for the past six years, he’s been the target of the Chinese government’s national security police.