HONG KONG PRO-DEMOCRACY MEDIA TYCOON JIMMY LAI’S COURT TRIAL BEGINS

Mon 18 December 2023:

On Monday, a national security trial for Hong Kong media tycoon Jimmy Lai Chee-ying began in West Kowloon, public broadcaster RTHK reported.

The now-defunct Apple Daily newspaper’s 76-year-old founder is charged of “colluding with foreign forces to endanger national security and conspiring to print seditious publications.” The trial should last at least 80 days.

The newspaper was closed in 2021 after the local government arrested its executives and froze its assets. Jimmy has been in jail since 2020.

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Lai’s wife Teresa was present in court, along with family and Joseph Zen, the 92-year-old cardinal who was also arrested under the NSL but is now out on bail.

Outside the heavily-guarded courthouse, 67-year-old Alexandra Wong – a prominent pro-democracy activist better known as Grandma Wong – had staged a lone protest, shouting slogans even as she was surrounded by police, before she was led away.

“I support Jimmy Lai because I want truth,” Wong said. “People won’t trust us. I wish he can come out soon. I wish to read Apple Daily again.”

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Lai’s international legal team told media that he had been denied his right to a fair hearing. Beijing had barred him from appointing a UK lawyer, and he is being tried by three judges handpicked by Hong Kong’s leader, a member of Lai’s London-based legal team said.

The US and the UK have called for Lai, who holds Chinese and British citizenship, to be released.

China implemented its controversial national security law in the semi-autonomous region on July 1, 2020.

The law criminalizes anti-China sentiments in the region, which continued to serve as a vibrant economic hub after the UK handed it over to Beijing in 1997 under a vow that it would enjoy a high level of autonomy for 50 years.

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It has triggered criticism from the US, UK and their allies, but Beijing rejects it as an interference in its internal affairs.

Beijing, which introduced the National Security Law (NSL) in 2020 in response to massive pro-democracy protests, insists the law is necessary to quell unrest. It considers Lai a traitor who sought to undermine China’s security. But critics say Lai’s case is yet another example of Beijing’s tightening grip on the former British territory.

SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES

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