Hong Kong media mogul Jimmy Lai has formally pleaded not guilty to conspiring to collude with foreign forces and publishing “seditious” materials in his closely-watched national security trial.
Wearing a dark-coloured jacket and a white shirt, the 76-year-old founder of pro-democracy newspaper Apple Daily, addressed the court for the first time on Tuesday since the trial began on December 18.
“Not guilty,” Lai said, speaking clearly from the defendant’s dock at the West Kowloon Law Courts Building as a clerk read out the three charges. He stands accused of two counts of conspiring to collude with foreign forces under the Beijing-imposed national security law and one count of conspiring to publish “seditious” publications.
He faces up to life in prison if convicted.
The pro-democracy figure, one of the highest-profile people charged under the security legislation, has been detained since December 2020. Lai is currently serving a five years and nine months sentence in Stanley Prison, a maximum security facility, for a separate fraud case.
Lai’s trial resumed on Tuesday following a break over the Christmas and New Year period.
Three companies linked to Apple Daily – Apple Daily Limited, Apple Daily Printing Limited, and AD Internet Limited – stand accused of conspiring to publish “seditious” publications and one count of conspiring to collude with foreign forces. The lawyer representing the companies also pleaded not guilty on Tuesday.
Foreign ties
The prosecution begun delivering its opening statement on Tuesday after the pleas had been submitted, arguing that Lai was a well-connected “mastermind” who was in contact with Western politicians and regularly featured in foreign media.
Lead prosecutor Anthony Chau said Lai was “well-known for his newspaper business” and “claimed himself a staunch supporter of Hong Kong’s pan-democrats.”
“[He made] use of his media business and platform to pursue his political agenda,” Chau said.
“Under the guise of fighting for freedom and democracy, [Lai] had on multiple occasions engaged in making requests for foreign governments – in particular the US – to impose sanctions, blocks or engage in hostile activities against [the Hong Kong and Chinese governments],” he added.
In July 2019, Lai travelled to Washington DC, where he met the then-US vice-president Mike Pence and then-US secretary of state Mike Pompeo, Chau said.
The prosecution also played half a dozen interviews that Lai did with overseas media outlets and think tanks before the Beijing-imposed security law was enacted in late June 2020, criminalising secession, subversion, terrorism and foreign collusion. In a May 2020 interview with Fox Business, Lai said now was “the time to confront China” and that there were “many ways the US can… give pressure to China,” such as placing sanctions on Chinese technology.
In an interview later that month with the BBC, Lai said he expected that then-US president Donald Trump would impose “really serious and draconian sanctions” on Hong Kong and Chinese officials, saying he had threatened such action after it was reported that Beijing would pass the security legislation.
“The most important action is from president Donald Trump. He said if China impose[s] the law on Hong Kong there [would be] serious consequences,” Lai is heard saying. “I believe Trump is a man of his words.”
The prosecution also displayed a chart labelled “Lai Chee-ying’s external political connections,” showing headshots of overseas figures that Lai was said to be in communication with. Among them were Benedict Rogers and Luke de Pulford, both UK-based human rights activists, as well as James Cunningham, the former consul general in Hong Kong.
Jack Keane, a former US army general and Paul Wolfowitz, a former US deputy secretary of defence, were also named.
‘Fight to the end’
With regards to the seditious publications charge, Chau said there were 11 examples of “impugned content” published by Apple Daily between April 1 and June 2, 2019, the period leading up to the protests and unrest that summer.
The demonstrations were sparked by a controversial amendment to the city’s extradition bill that would have allowed the transfer of fugitives to mainland China to stand trial. The protests ballooned into a larger display of opposition against the Hong Kong and Beijing authorities.
Apple Daily’s content had the objective of swaying public opinion and calling on the public to take part in the protests, Chau continued.
Among the examples were Chinese opinion pieces written by Lai.
In one published on May 5, 2019, Lai “called for the public to defend their homeland and… [said] people had to come out in [large] numbers to oppose the government officials,” Chau said.
He highlighted a section of the op-ed in which Lai wrote that Hongkongers “cannot give up” and must “resist and fight to the end.”
After the trial began last month, the defence argued for the dismissal of the sedition charge, saying it was laid after a six-month statute of limitations had expired.
But the judges upheld the charge, ruling that while Lai was only brought to court six months after Apple Daily ceased operation, the prosecution had filed the charge to the court before that.
The prosecution will continue to deliver its opening statement on Wednesday.
Lai’s high-profile trial, presided over by a panel of handpicked national security judges rather than a jury, is expected to last 80 days.
Globally, the trial has been framed as a bellwether for press freedom in Hong Kong, and representatives from international press freedom watchdog Reporters Without Borders were among those present on the trial’s opening day. In a statement, the watchdog said the “world was watching and will not turn a blind eye to a miscarriage of justice.”
The government, however, said in a statement on Monday that law enforcement actions were based on evidence and had “nothing to do with freedom of the press, or the background of any person or organisation.”
Support HKFP | Policies & Ethics | Error/typo? | Contact Us | Newsletter | Transparency & Annual Report | Apps
Help safeguard press freedom & keep HKFP free for all readers by supporting our team
