Jimmy Lai, a veteran pro-democracy determine in Hong Kong, pleaded not responsible on Tuesday to nationwide safety expenses, as prosecutors accused him of colluding with American and different international officers to destabilize town and undermine China’s sovereignty.
Mr. Lai, 76, who based Apple Day by day, a preferred antigovernment newspaper, was arrested in 2020, changing into one of many first outstanding targets of a nationwide safety regulation imposed by Beijing to crush the opposition. Mr. Lai faces as much as life in jail if convicted of nationwide safety offenses, and his trial is seen as a take a look at of the independence of town’s judiciary.
As Mr. Lai, who was sporting a navy blazer and a white shirt, entered the courtroom, he smiled and waved to his spouse and two youngsters, who sat within the gallery, earlier than taking his seat in a dock encased by glass.
On Tuesday, the lead prosecutor, Anthony Chau, started making his case by outlining proof of what he described as Mr. Lai’s collusion with international forces, a vaguely outlined political crime underneath the nationwide safety regulation. Mr. Chau’s argument centered on conferences Mr. Lai had with American politicians, messages he had exchanged with officers, interviews he gave to the media, and views that he aired on social media.
He introduced a diagram mapping out what he described as Mr. Lai’s international political connections, with whom he had met in 2019, together with officers within the Trump administration such because the then-vice president, Mike Pence, and secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, in addition to different politicians similar to Nancy Pelosi, who had been Speaker of the Home. Mr. Chau accused Mr. Lai of undermining nationwide safety by calling on the American officers to impose sanctions on Hong Kong and Chinese language officers answerable for the crackdown on town’s pro-democracy protesters. Such an act has been deemed a “hostile exercise” towards the Hong Kong and Chinese language governments and is an offense underneath the nationwide safety regulation.
Mr. Chau described Mr. Lai as a “radical political determine who conspired with others to usher in hatred and fire up opposition.” Mr. Chau stated that Mr. Lai’s former staff at Apple Day by day and Subsequent Digital, which owns Apple Day by day, would testify towards him within the trial.
The precise expenses towards Mr. Lai are “collusion with international forces” and a “conspiracy to collude with international forces” underneath the nationwide safety regulation. He additionally faces a colonial-era sedition cost, referring to publications spanning a two-year interval, from April 1, 2019, to June 24, 2021.
Human rights activists in addition to the USA and British governments have denounced the fees towards Mr. Lai as politically motivated and trumped as much as silence a outstanding critic of Beijing’s increasing authoritarian grip over town.
The prosecutor sought to make the case that Mr. Lai had appreciable affect in Washington, pointing to messages and WhatsApp teams from Mr. Lai’s cellphone that purported to indicate American officers and human rights activist abroad asking for his opinion on motion on China.
Mr. Chau additionally listed as proof an editorial by Mr. Lai revealed in The New York Occasions in 2020, through which he had described the fast erosion of free speech within the metropolis and listed methods to retaliate towards Beijing for its repression. The prosecutor additionally performed video interviews Mr. Lai had with reporters from BBC Information, Bloomberg, Fox Information and the Monetary Occasions, through which he defined why he was calling on Western governments to impose sanctions.
The prosecution will proceed its opening statements on Wednesday. Mr. Lai’s trial began two weeks in the past and is anticipated to run for not less than 80 days. He’s serving a five-year sentence on a separate conviction of fraud.
