Hong Kong media mogul Jimmy Lai to take witness stand in collusion trial

Professional-democracy media mogul Jimmy Lai will take the stand in his collusion trial on Wednesday, testifying in court docket for the primary time regardless of being the topic of 5 earlier trials in virtually 4 years.

Lai’s case is among the most distinguished below the nationwide safety regulation imposed by Beijing in 2020, with western international locations and rights teams demanding his launch.

The 76-year-old founding father of the now-closed tabloid Apple Day by day is accused of colluding with overseas forces, a cost that might carry a sentence of as much as life in jail. He has pleaded not responsible.

His testimony comes with Hong Kong’s political freedoms already below the highlight, after a court docket jailed 45 democracy campaigners for subversion within the metropolis’s largest nationwide safety trial on Tuesday.

Lai’s case centres round his newspaper’s publications, which supported large, pro-democracy protests in 2019 and criticised Beijing’s management.

Lai has been behind bars since December 2020, and considerations have been raised round his well being.

“The case of Jimmy Lai will not be an outlier, it’s a symptom of Hong Kong’s democratic decline,” the Committee to Shield Journalists mentioned in a Monday assertion.

“Hong Kong’s remedy of Jimmy Lai – and extra broadly of unbiased media and journalists – exhibits that this administration is now not enthusiastic about even a semblance of democratic norms.”

Hong Kong and Beijing have refuted the criticism, condemning Lai as “a voluntary political device of overseas forces attempting to curb China by Hong Kong”.

For the reason that prosecution opened in January, it has alleged that on a number of events Lai requested the US and different international locations to impose sanctions “or have interaction in different hostile actions” towards China and Hong Kong.

Lai faces one depend of “conspiracy to publish seditious publications” in addition to two counts of conspiracy to overseas collusion.

The case towards him revolves round 161 articles revealed in Apple Day by day, in addition to his personal interviews and social media postings.

The newspaper was pressured to shut in 2021 after police raids and the arrests of its senior editors.

The prosecution accused Lai and 6 Apple Day by day senior executives of utilizing the media enterprise as a platform to “fire up opposition to the federal government … and to collude with overseas international locations”.

Dozens of native and overseas politicians and students – together with former US secretary of state Mike Pompeo – had been named by the prosecution as Lai’s “brokers”, “intermediaries” or “collaborators”.

Lai can also be accused of supporting two younger activists in lobbying for overseas sanctions by way of a protest group known as “Stand With Hong Kong”.

The six executives and two activists have pleaded responsible, with 5 of them testifying towards Lai.

Final month, British prime minister Keir Starmer advised parliament that Lai, who holds British citizenship, was “a precedence” for his Labour authorities.

Starmer raised the problem in a gathering with the Chinese language chief, Xi Jinping, on Monday.

Lai’s son had beforehand mentioned “a lot stronger” assist from the British authorities was wanted as Lai’s well being “may get a lot worse at any second”.

A authorized staff led by a senior British rights lawyer has filed quite a few complaints to the United Nations regarding arbitrary detention and extended solitary confinement.

On Sunday, the Hong Kong authorities condemned the authorized staff for “spreading misinformation”, saying that Lai himself had requested to be saved other than different inmates.

“The unfounded remarks … are utterly fact-twisting and are merely a despicable political manoeuvre with malicious intention,” the federal government mentioned in an announcement.

Robertsons, a Hong Kong regulation agency representing Lai within the trial, has additionally disregarded among the allegations.

“Mr Lai needs to make identified that he has been receiving applicable medical consideration for situations suffered by him, together with diabetes,” the agency mentioned in an announcement in September.

“He has entry to sunlight by the home windows within the hall exterior his cell, albeit he can’t see the sky. He workouts for an hour daily in a safe space.”