Lai and others involved in the trial, including senior journalists at Apple Daily, face a conspiracy to publish seditious publications charge.
Lai also faces foreign collusion charges that include allegations of calling on countries, including the United States, to impose sanctions against the Hong Kong and Chinese governments between July 2020 and June 2021.
Lai has pleaded not guilty to all charges.
Lai’s lawyer, Robert Pang, has so far sought to scrap or limit the timeframe of the prosecution’s sedition conspiracy charge, due to a requirement under local laws that charges must be brought within six months of an alleged offence.
“What the prosecution cannot do … is to sit on their backsides, do nothing, and then two to three years down the road,” bring the conspiracy to commit sedition charge, said Pang.
The government prosecutor Anthony Chau, however, called this argument “absurd”, saying Lai and the Apple Daily had published a total of 161 seditious articles between Apr 1, 2019 and Jun 24, 2021 – when the newspaper was finally shut down following a police raid and a freeze on its assets that crippled its operations.
“Conspiracy by nature is continuing,” Chau told the court, saying Lai’s criminal enterprise to publish seditious articles over this entire period should be considered as a whole.
The judges later adjourned the trial to Friday when they are expected to deliver a decision on this sedition matter. The trial is expected to last 80 days.
Source: CNA
