© Reuters. FILE PHOTO: Media mogul Jimmy Lai, founding father of Apple Daily, leaves the Court of Final Appeal by jail van in Hong Kong, China February 9, 2021. REUTERS/Tyrone Siu/File Photo
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By James Pomfret, Greg Torode and Jessie Pang
HONG KONG (Reuters) – An extended-awaited nationwide safety trial opens in Hong Kong on Monday for main China critic and media tycoon Jimmy Lai, who faces attainable life imprisonment on fees he colluded with international forces, together with the United States.
Foreign envoys, enterprise folks and authorized students can be watching the trial intently, saying it looms as a contemporary diplomatic flashpoint and a key take a look at for the town’s judicial independence and freedoms underneath the sweeping nationwide safety regulation imposed by China in 2020.
Jimmy Lai, 76, the founding father of now-shuttered pro-democracy newspaper Apple (NASDAQ:) Daily and probably the most distinguished Hong Kong critics of China’s Communist Party management, has confronted a salvo of litigation since a wave of pro-democracy demonstrations in 2019.
Lai, whom China’s international ministry this week referred to as a “notorious anti-China element”, faces a number of fees underneath the regulation, together with collusion with international forces – a rely that entails calling for sanctions towards Hong Kong and Chinese officers.
He additionally faces a cost underneath older sedition legal guidelines, with six senior journalists and executives at Lai’s Apple Daily newspaper additionally arrested. Lai has pleaded not responsible to all fees.
Lai is already serving a 5-year, 9-month jail time period for a fraud conviction over a lease dispute for his newspaper.
Hong Kong and Chinese authorities say the town’s rule of regulation is strong and all are handled equally earlier than it. Both Hong Kong and Chinese officers say the safety laws was wanted to revive stability to the previous British colony.
But some near Lai take a dimmer view, noting the usage of the regulation’s powers to disclaim Lai bail, block a jury trial, and permit the town’s pro-Beijing chief to nominate three excessive court docket judges who will hear the case.
“Any talk of justice would be a farce,” Sebastien Lai, one among his sons, instructed Reuters from London, the place he just lately met the British Foreign Secretary David Cameron. “Everyone knows it’s going to be a show trial.”
People accustomed to the case say it may final greater than 80 days.
The U.S. authorities has repeatedly referred to as for Lai’s launch, saying his case is politically motivated and a part of an ongoing safety clampdown that has all however dissolved the town’s opposition democrats, with many jailed or fleeing into exile.
The trial comes as the town prepares to enact a brand new spherical of nationwide safety legal guidelines subsequent yr referred to as Article 23 that may additional tighten China’s grip, and embody counter-espionage laws that might strengthen official management over international establishments.
‘LIQUIDATION’ OF LISTED COMPANY
Lai’s plight has additionally highlighted among the contradictions confronted by Hong Kong because it seeks to rejuvenate its status as a worldwide monetary centre with nationwide safety now a coverage prerogative underneath China’s chief, Xi Jinping.
Lai’s listed firm Next Digital had its belongings frozen after a mass police raid on its headquarters, and bankers have been threatened, basically crippling operations and forcing its shutdown.
“The prosecution of Jimmy Lai and the forced closure of Apple Daily are a sad sign of what has happened to Hong Kong,” Gordon Crovitz, a former director of Next Digital and a former writer of the Wall Street Journal, instructed Reuters. “Both in terms of the decline of the free press, and the dangers of operating a publicly traded company where the national security law can be invoked to force the liquidation of a listed company without any involvement of a court.”
SANCTIONS FOCUS
Lai and his key executives concerned on this trial are accused of calling for international sanctions towards Hong Kong and China between July 2020 and June 2021.
Prosecutor Anthony Chau had accused Lai of requesting international sanctions earlier than the introduction of the safety regulation, together with assembly then-U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in July 2019 to debate the extradition modification invoice and attending a speech by then-U.S. Vice President Mike Pence in October 2019.
Chau additionally alleged the Apple Daily acted as a platform for a international nation or organisation to impose sanctions towards the Hong Kong and Chinese governments, together with public letters addressed to then-U.S. President Donald Trump, interesting for worldwide stress towards Beijing.
Chau listed greater than 160 articles printed by Apple Daily and accused it of carrying seditious statements towards the Hong Kong and Chinese governments, and interesting to folks to participate in protests.
Three sources with direct information of the matter, however who declined to be named given the sensitivity of the topic, stated the prosecution would most definitely concentrate on convicting Lai on sanctions-related grounds, given quite a few public feedback and writings he made on the subject.
Six witnesses for the prosecution are anticipated to be referred to as, together with senior former Apple Daily staffers, and activists.
Two of those witnesses, Andy Li and Chan Tsz-wah, are accused of requesting international sanctions in live performance with Lai, his assistant Mark Simon, exiled activist Finn Lau and others up till early 2021.
An individual accustomed to Lai’s state of affairs stated the tycoon has misplaced weight in jail however was in a “steadfast” temper and able to face his accusers.
The High Court in May rejected an software to terminate the trial towards Lai. Lai’s defence lawyer, Robert Pang, argued that there’s an obvious bias towards Lai by the court docket due to an absence of transparency within the appointment of nationwide safety judges.
A London lawyer, Timothy Owen, was barred from listening to Lai’s trial this yr after the town legislature handed a invoice giving the town’s chief the ability to bar attorneys with out the appropriate to observe in Hong Kong from nationwide safety circumstances, after a Beijing ruling.
