Democratic media mogul Jimmy Lai has taken the witness stand for the first time since being indicted on foreign conspiracy charges under Hong Kong's punitive national security law.
He told the court Wednesday that he started his media business after the Tiananmen massacre. “I thought it would be a good opportunity for someone like me, a businessman who makes a certain amount of money, to participate in distributing information that I believe is freedom. It was a very good idea for me at the time…The more information you have, the more knowledge you have, the more freedom you have.”
Lai's voice was hoarse as she swore on the Bible, but it grew stronger as she testified. He sat at his desk and placed his reading glasses on the table in front of him.
He said the newspaper he founded, Apple Daily, was popular because it shared the core values of Hong Kong people.
Mr. Li's case is one of the most high-profile cases under the national security law imposed by the Chinese government in 2020, and Western countries and rights groups have called for his release.
The Apple Daily founder, 76, has been charged with colluding with foreign forces, a charge that could carry a maximum sentence of life in prison. He pleaded not guilty.
His testimony comes as Hong Kong's political freedoms are already in the spotlight after a court on Tuesday jailed 45 democracy activists on charges of subversion in Hong Kong's biggest national security trial. Ta.
Lai's lawsuit focuses on the newspaper's publications in 2019, which supported mass pro-democracy protests and criticized China's government leadership.
Mr. Lai has been in prison since December 2020, and concerns have been raised about his health.
“Jimmy Lai's case is not an outlier, but a symptom of Hong Kong's democratic decline,” the Committee to Protect Journalists said in a statement on Monday.
“The Hong Kong government's treatment of Jimmy Li, and of independent media and journalists more broadly, shows that this regime no longer cares about even the slightest bit of democratic norms.”
The Hong Kong and Chinese governments rejected the criticism, calling Lai a “spontaneous political instrument of foreign powers seeking to suppress China through Hong Kong.”
The crowd gathered outside the courtroom Wednesday morning was smaller than at Tuesday's sentencing of 45 Democrats. A large number of police were patrolling the area.
By 8 a.m., about 100 people had formed a line, huddled against the rain and wind.
William Wong, 64, said he had been following the case against Apple Daily and its founder Lai for years.
“I am a reader of Apple Daily. Several years have passed and Mr. Lai was incarcerated. He is old and not in good health, so I would like to directly support him.”
At the front of the line, a lively group of Rai supporters huddled together, sharing take-out hot chocolate and warming themselves under space blankets.
“We really want to support him. It's for us Hong Kongers, for Hong Kong, for my Hong Kong,” said the man, who was jailed on charges of unlawful assembly during the 2019 protests. said CY Chen, a man in his 70s.
“There are very few people like Jimmy Lai who speak for us these days. That's why we cherish him and care about him.”
Since the prosecution began in January, Lai has repeatedly urged the United States and other countries to “impose sanctions or engage in other hostile activities” against China and Hong Kong, the lawsuit alleges. I am doing it.
Lai is charged with one count of “conspiracy to publish seditious publications” and two counts of conspiracy to commit collusion with a foreign country.
The case against him centers on 161 articles published in Apple Daily, as well as his own interviews and social media posts.
The paper was forced to close in 2021 following a police raid and the arrest of its senior editor.
Prosecutors accused Li and six Apple Daily executives of using the media business as a platform to “incite opposition to the government and collude with foreign countries.”
Dozens of domestic and foreign politicians and academics, including former US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, have been named by prosecutors as Lai's “agents,'' “intermediaries,'' and “collaborators.''
Lai is also suspected of supporting two young activists in lobbying for foreign sanctions through a protest group called Stand with Hong Kong.
Six executives and two activists pleaded guilty, and five of them testified against Lai.
Last month, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer told parliament that Mr Lai, a British national, was a “priority” for the Labor government.
Mr Starmer raised the issue in a meeting with Chinese leader Xi Jinping on Monday.
Mr Rai's son previously said he needed “stronger” support from the UK government as his health “could worsen further at any time”.
The defense team, led by a senior British rights lawyer, has made a number of complaints to the United Nations regarding arbitrary detention and long-term solitary confinement.
Hong Kong's government said on Sunday that Lai himself had asked to be isolated from other prisoners and accused his legal team of “spreading false information.”
“The baseless statement is a complete distortion of the facts and is nothing more than a malicious and despicable political ploy,” the government said in a statement.
Hong Kong law firm Robertsons, which is representing Lai at trial, also dismissed some of the allegations.
“Mr. Lai would like to make it known that he is receiving appropriate treatment for the conditions he suffers from, including diabetes,” the company said in a statement in September.
“He can't see the sky, but he can get sunlight from the hallway window outside his cell. He exercises for an hour in a safe place every day.”
with Agence France-Presse
