The long-awaited trial of Hong Kong publisher and democracy activist Jimmy Lai has begun with a call for a sedition charge against him to be dismissed. Mr Lai (76), who has already spent more than 1,000 days behind bars, also faces charges under a controversial national security law that could mean he spends the rest of his life in prison.
Robert Pang Yiu-hung SC told the three-judge panel that the prosecution had exceeded a six-month time limit for charging Mr Lai under the British colonial era sedition law. The charges relate to allegedly seditious publications between April 1st 2019 and June 24th 2021, but Mr Lai first appeared in court on December 28th, 2021 and Mr Pang said this meant that the prosecution was four days too late to charge him under the sedition law.
Mr Lai, who came to Hong Kong as a stowaway from mainland China at the age of 12, rose from working in a sweatshop to founding the international clothing brand Giordano. In 1995, he founded Apple Daily, a brash Chinese-language tabloid newspaper that was critical of the government in Beijing and backed numerous pro-democracy movements and demonstrations in Hong Kong.
Besides the sedition allegation, he faces conspiracy charges under the National Security Law imposed by Beijing on Hong Kong in 2020. Prosecutors say he colluded with foreign forces by calling for international sanctions against the Hong Kong authorities and that he incited public hatred in the wake of pro-democracy protests in 2019.
Some senior journalists and executives from Apple Daily, which closed in June 2021, have also been charged under the national security law and have entered guilty pleas. A number of them are expected to testify against Mr Lai.
Cases under the new law are tried under the common law system in a Hong Kong high court but with three judges sitting without a jury. Since the law was introduced three years ago, every defendant in every national security trial has been convicted.
Among those who attended the trial on Monday was Cardinal Joseph Zen, the former Bishop of Hong Kong and a close friend of Mr Lai. Ten Catholic bishops, including Bishop of Raphoe Alan McGuckian, called last month for Mr Lai’s immediate and unconditional release.
Mr Lai is a British citizen and foreign secretary David Cameron issued a statement before the trial opened calling for him to be released. The United States has made a similar call and the European Union said on Monday that the trial undermined confidence in the rule of law in Hong Kong.
In Beijing, the foreign ministry dismissed British and American criticism of the trial as politically motivated smears and insisted that Hong Kong followed the rule of law.
“Jimmy Lai is a major mastermind and participant of the anti-China riots in Hong Kong. He is an agent and pawn of the anti-China forces and the person behind the riots in Hong Kong. What he did was detrimental to Hong Kong’s prosperity and stability and the wellbeing of the people in Hong Kong. The Hong Kong law enforcement and judicial authorities have handled and tried the case in accordance with the law. This is fully justified, legitimate and lawful,” said a spokesman.
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