The trial of a Catholic democracy activist in Hong Kong on charges of collusion with foreigners and seditious activity was delayed – again – on Friday, due to concerns over the defendant’s health. Source: Crux.
The defendant is Jimmy Lai, a 77-year-old Cantonese native who reached Hong Kong as a stow-away and began working in a garment factory before rising through the ranks, becoming a manager, and then buying his own factory before pivoting to newspaper and magazine publishing.
Closing arguments were to begin on Thursday, but an impending typhoon caused the scheduled hearing to be postponed by one day. Mr Lai’s attorneys told the court their client was experiencing heart palpitations, after which Mr Lai was examined and the hearing rescheduled for today.
Mr Lai is a practicing Catholic who holds a British passport and is the only one of seven senior officers at Lai’s now defunct Apple Daily newspaper holding out on charges they conspired with foreign forces to threaten Chinese national security.
Six other former Apple Daily officers entered guilty pleas on conspiracy charges in 2022, but Mr Lai pled not guilty and chose to face a trial that could see him given a life sentence.
The charges were brought under a national security law passed for Hong Kong in 2020, which gave the government of the former British colony sweeping powers to arrest, prosecute, and punish behaviour authorities deemed to support secession, subversion of authority, and collusion with foreign or external forces. The 2020 law also broadly defined terrorism as the use of violence or intimidation.
Hong Kong’s government is widely believed to be controlled by the Communist government of mainland China in a way that violates the spirit, if not the letter, of the “one country, two systems” arrangement established when control of the island passed from Britain to China in 1997.
The national security law under which the charges against Mr Lai have been brought was passed in 2020 in the wake of sustained pro-democracy protests that earned a forceful response from authorities. The protests garnered intense international attention, and the crackdown received broad condemnation.
Mr Lai has been in jail for more than 1600 days, most of it in solitary confinement according to his attorneys, who say he has not been allowed to receive independent care for diabetes and has been denied Holy Communion.
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Trial against Catholic media tycoon in Hong Kong delayed once again (By Christopher R. Altieri, Crux)
