HONG KONG—A Hong Kong court dismissed a bid by the legal team for jailed businessman and pro-democracy activist Jimmy Lai to end his national security trial, with a panel of judges ruling on July 25 that prosecutors appeared to have sufficient evidence to support all three charges against him.
Mr. Lai, 76, founder of the now-shuttered pro-democracy newspaper Apple Daily, has pleaded not guilty to two charges of conspiracy to collude with foreign forces and a lesser charge of conspiracy to publish seditious material.
“Having considered all the submissions, we ruled that the first defendant [Mr. Lai] has a case to answer on all the charges,” said Judge Esther Toh, one of a panel of three national security judges hearing the case.
Beijing imposed the draconian national security law on Hong Kong in 2020 after months of pro-democracy protests in the Asian financial hub.
The trial will resume on Nov. 20. Mr. Lai has elected to give evidence in court. If convicted, he could face a life sentence.
It was the 92nd day of a high-profile trial that began on Dec. 18, 2023, and initially been expected to last 80 days.
Defense lawyers, led by Robert Pang, had sought to end the proceedings and seek Mr. Lai’s acquittal on the grounds that there was no case to answer, contending that the prosecution’s evidence was insufficient.
Mr. Pang said an agreement before the national security law wouldn’t automatically make it illegal, although the law invalidated earlier legal agreements.
Although there could be evidence of an agreement to publish certain articles or work with some organizations, he said, there was no evidence of such agreements made after the law was put into effect.
“Whatever was agreed previously, when calling for sanctions was perfectly lawful, was not agreed subsequently,” Mr. Pang said.
In response to the prosecution’s accusation that Mr. Lai used the Apple Daily as a platform to conspire, Mr. Pang said that newspapers could have a spectrum of differing views.
“That’s a very strange allegation,” he said.
Mr. Pang said freedom of the press was guaranteed by Hong Kong’s mini-constitution, the Basic Law, and the bill of rights ordinance.
Several witnesses mentioned that Apple Daily consulted lawyers on avoiding breaches of the national security law, he said, which was “positive evidence” that the agreement was to comply with the law.
The prosecution wrapped up its case in June, having called eight witnesses, among them five defendants who had earlier pleaded guilty.
A British citizen, Mr. Lai has been held in solitary confinement since December 2020. He is serving a sentence of five years and nine months after being convicted of violating a lease contract for the newspaper’s headquarters.
While the UK and the United States have advocated Mr. Lai’s immediate release, calling the case politically motivated, Hong Kong officials have said Mr. Lai will get a fair trial.
Western governments have voiced concern that the national security law is part of the Chinese communist regime’s effort to end dissent and freedoms guaranteed to Hong Kong when the UK handed it to China in 1997.