HONG KONG (LifeSiteNews) — The much-anticipated trial of Catholic Hong Kong pro-democracy activist Jimmy Lai began today as the U.K. government issued a call for his release and China observers condemned the trial as “public torture.”
In the early hours of December 18, the media mogul was taken by security personnel to the West Kowloon Law Courts Building, where his trial began and is expected to continue for around 80 days.
Present at the court were supporters of Lai, including Hong Kong’s emeritus Cardinal Joseph Zen.
The 76-year-old Lai was sentenced to a nearly six-year jail term last December on the charge of “fraud,” separate to the charge on which he is currently facing trial. Also present were unusually large numbers of heavily armed police and security personnel.
According to news outlet Hong Kong Free Press (HKFP), at Lai’s December 2022 sentencing, the judge also imposed “an eight-year disqualification order to Lai and ordered the media tycoon to pay HK$2 million in fines.”
READ: Hong Kong court sentences China critic and Catholic journalist Jimmy Lai to six years in prison
Lai, who was brought into the Catholic faith by Cardinal Zen, is a strong and vocal critic of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and its measures against freedom.
In 1995, he founded the pro-democracy tabloid Apple Daily, which published criticism of the CCP that earned it the ire of the Communist authorities. The paper became one of the leading newspapers in Hong Kong but closed its doors in June 2021 when the offices were raided by CCP security personnel and Lai was arrested.
In the current trial, Lai faces separate charges of “collusion with foreign forces” in violation of the draconian National Security Law (NSL) that Beijing imposed on the island in June 2020 in order to suppress dissent against the CCP, and he could face a life sentence under this law.
The prestigious London-based law firm Doughty Street Chambers described the already-sentenced “fraud” charges against Lai as “spurious” and added that his arrest under the NSL was simply for “peaceful pro-democracy campaigning and his work at Apple Daily.”
Lai escaped to Hong Kong from China as a child and became a self-made businessman, using his influence and resources to promote the cause of freedom and democracy.
His arrest and subsequent jail sentence caused outrage in the international sphere, with the U.S. State Department issuing an October 2022 statement in which it deplored the Chinese National Security Law’s “systematic dismantling of Hong Kong’s autonomy” and called for a restoration of “respect for press freedom in Hong Kong, where a once-vibrant independent media environment has all but disappeared.”
The HKFP reported that Lai’s lawyers argued during the opening day that the case was, aside for anything else, outside the statute of limitations. They argued that Lai is accused of being involved with promoting “seditious publications” between April 2019 and June 24, 2021, but that Lai was only charged on December 28, 2021 – over six months later, and thus outside the time limitations.
The trial date for the alleged violation of the NSL had been due to commence in December 2022 but had been repeatedly delayed by the CCP authorities, prompting further outcry from his son Sebastien Lai, and from Chine observers across the globe.
His son warned in September that Lai’s then still-pending trial for the alleged violation of the NSL was being delayed deliberately, as the event would not reflect well on the CCP. The trial was described by his lawyers as a “show trial.”
According to the Hong Kong Free Press, Lai’s trial will not in fact be conducted with a jury but decided solely by a trio of hand-picked judges.
As the trial began December 18, a fresh wave of calls for his release were issued by both the U.S. and U.K. governments. Lai is a British national, with Hong Kong a former colony of the British Empire for more than 150 years, formally handed over to Chinese rule in 1997.
In a December 17 statement, Lord David Cameron – Foreign and Commonwealth Secretary for the U.K. – stated that “as a prominent and outspoken journalist and publisher, Jimmy Lai has been targeted in a clear attempt to stop the peaceful exercise of his rights to freedom of expression and association.”
Referring to the “politically motivated prosecution” of Lai, Cameron issued a call for the “Hong Kong authorities to end their prosecution and release Jimmy Lai.”
Echoing this, U.S. Department of State spokesman Matthew Miller stated that the “United States condemns the prosecution of pro-democracy advocate and media owner Jimmy Lai in Hong Kong under the PRC-imposed National Security Law.”
Noting how the authorities had “denied him [Lai] his choice of legal representation,” Miller issued a call for “Hong Kong authorities to immediately release Jimmy Lai and all others imprisoned for defending their rights.”
China expert and head of the Population Research Institute Steven Mosher decried the legal proceedings as “not a ‘trial’ – it [sic] just the latest stage in the CCP’s ongoing public torture of an innocent man, Jimmy Lai, for standing up for his God-given rights.”
This is not a “trial”–it just the latest stage in the CCP’s ongoing public torture of an innocent man, Jimmy Lai, for standing up for his God-given rights.
The last British judges, whose presence helped to ensure the rule of law in the city, left the court in disgust last year… https://t.co/wMBtmNWKL3
— StevenWMosher (@StevenWMosher) December 18, 2023
A feature length film by the Acton Institute was released earlier this year documenting Lai’s life and his stance for freedom in the face of CCP action against him.
READ: TikTok forced to reverse censorship of Jimmy Lai video critical of Chinese gov’t after public outcry
Lai was also nominated for the 2023 Nobel Peace Prize along with Cardinal Zen and other Hong Kong freedom activists.
More recently, an international group of Catholic prelates issued a demand for Lai’s release, stating, “In standing up for his beliefs and committing himself through his faith to challenge autocracy and repression, Jimmy Lai has lost his business, been cut off from his family, and has just surpassed 1,000 days in prison, while facing the prospect of many more years of incarceration to come. He is 75 years old. He must be freed now.”