Jimmy Lai trial: Hong Kong court rejects tycoon’s request to dismiss sedition charge in national security case

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A Hong Kong court has rejected media tycoon Jimmy Lai Chee-ying’s request to order the dismissal of a sedition charge in his national security trial, leaving open the prospect of his conviction of the colonial-era offence as prosecutors look set to open their case in the new year.

Lai on Friday returned to West Kowloon Court before 8am, appearing a few hours later in front of three High Court judges to hear the panel’s verdict ahead of his 80-day trial proceeding to the next stage.

Lawyers for the 76-year-old founder of the now-defunct Apple Daily earlier asked the judges to strike out a count of conspiracy relating to the tabloid newspaper’s allegedly seditious publications between April 2019 and June 2021, arguing the charge was laid after the expiry of a six-month time limit for filing a complaint under the city’s criminal code.

Jimmy Lai’s legal team arrives at court. Lawyers for the 76-year-old had asked judges to strike out a count of conspiracy relating to the tabloid newspaper’s allegedly seditious publications. Photo: Sam Tsang

Police were out in numbers despite the short hearing on Lai’s third day of trial, with armed and plain clothes officers patrolling outside the court building, while the force set up roadblocks and searched cars entering the facility.

In contrast to the opening days of the trial, when dozens of members of the public queued early in the morning, fewer than 10 people were in line before 8.30am.

Some foreign consulate representatives arrived at around 10am, while Lai’s wife Teresa Li Wan-kam, son Augustin Lai Zhun-yan and daughter Claire Lai Choi also arrived at the court half an hour before the 11am hearing began.

Veteran Hong Kong activist Alexandra Wong Fung-yiu, popularly known by her Cantonese nickname “Wong Po Po” or “Grandma Wong”, also appeared outside the court at around 8.45am carrying her signature British Union flag.

Alexandra Wong, or ‘Grandma Wong’, surrounded by officers outside West Kowloon Court. She was escorted across the road to a spot opposite the building. Photo: Jonathan Wong

She was immediately surrounded by several plain clothes officers, with the force later sending over a dozen armed police. She chanted slogans of “Mr Lai, add oil” when a prisoner vehicle passed by.

Officers brought her across the street to a spot opposite the court building, where she continued to wave her flag.

Lai is also facing two conspiracy charges of collusion with foreign forces under the Beijing-decreed national security law for allegedly using Apple Daily and an anti-China lobbying campaign to attract international sanctions against Beijing and Hong Kong officials.

The same charges also target three Apple Daily companies, which are represented in the trial by a separate set of lawyers.

The court debate has so far centred on the correct construction of the city’s Crimes Ordinance, which requires prosecutors to lay a sedition charge within six months of the alleged transgression. Parties are divided as to how that six-month period is determined.

Lai’s legal team, led by Robert Pang Yiu-hung SC, said the prosecution should have filed the present sedition charge by October 2019, within six months after the first alleged breach of the law.

They contended the statute required the authorities to expedite the prosecution of sedition offences as a judicial safeguard against excessive inroads into personal freedom.

The prosecution, represented by Deputy Director of Public Prosecutions Anthony Chau Tin-hang, urged the court to draw the line based on when the alleged conspiracy ended, and in Lai’s case, the deadline should be six months after Apple Daily’s closure on June 24, 2021.

They warned that a different interpretation would risk undermining their ability to make a criminal case and would run contrary to the spirit of the security law, which emphasises the effective suppression of offences endangering the country’s safety.

But Lai’s counsel argued that even if their opponents’ reading was found to be true, they were still four days late because the tycoon only had the sedition charge read to him in court on December 28 that year.

Prosecutors countered by saying they had started sedition proceedings by telling parties in writing of their intention to lay the charge on December 14.

Lai has been detained for more than three years since he was first denied bail in December 2020. Apart from this case, he is serving a 69-month jail sentence on fraud charges stemming from the improper use of Apple Daily’s office space.