HONG KONG: Hong Kong media mogul Jimmy Lai’s lawyer clashed with judges on Thursday (Aug 21) over whether the pro-democracy newspaper founder’s “armchair punditry” on social media and other platforms breached the city’s national security law.
The 77-year-old founder of the now-closed Apple Daily has pleaded not guilty to two counts of foreign collusion, with authorities accusing him of using various platforms to lobby Western nations to sanction China and Hong Kong.
The charges were brought under the city’s national security law, which Beijing imposed in 2020 after huge and sometimes violent pro-democracy protests in the finance hub the year before.
Lawyers are presenting their closing arguments in the trial, which began in December 2023.
Prosecutors have cited 161 articles, including op-eds carrying Lai’s byline, as part of their evidence that the tycoon conspired to lobby for sanctions against China and Hong Kong.
Defence lawyer Robert Pang read out some of Lai’s social media posts in court.
He also pointed to a 2020 livestream in which Lai warned about China’s “war-wolf attitude” in foreign relations that the mogul said would not change unless Chinese President Xi Jinping stepped down.
“He’s commenting on world affairs … (like) over the dimsum table,” Pang told the court.
“It’s not a request for Xi Jinping to step down.”
Source: CNA
