HONG KONG — Outstanding activist and writer Jimmy Lai on Tuesday pleaded not responsible to a few fees of sedition and collusion with overseas international locations in a landmark nationwide safety trial in Hong Kong.
Lai, a media tycoon who based the now-defunct Apple Day by day newspaper, faces one rely of conspiring to print seditious publications to incite hatred in opposition to the Chinese language and Hong Kong governments, in addition to two counts of collusion with overseas international locations to name for sanctions and different hostile actions in opposition to China and Hong Kong.
Flanked by three jail officers, Lai formally pleaded not responsible to the fees learn to him, shortly after the courtroom rejected a last-ditch try by his counsel to throw out a sedition cost in opposition to him. The courtroom started listening to opening statements from the prosecution on Tuesday.
Wearing a navy blazer and a white shirt, Lai smiled and waved at his members of the family as he entered the courtroom forward of the beginning of the courtroom session.
Lai, 76, was arrested through the metropolis’s crackdown on dissidents following large pro-democracy protests in 2019.
He faces doable life imprisonment if convicted underneath a sweeping nationwide safety regulation imposed by Beijing. The trial is anticipated to final about 80 days with no jury.
His prosecution has drawn criticism from the USA and the UK. Beijing has known as their feedback irresponsible, saying they went in opposition to worldwide regulation and the essential norms of worldwide relations.
The case is being carefully watched by overseas governments, enterprise professionals and authorized students. Many view it as a trial of the town’s freedoms and a check for judicial independence within the Asian monetary hub.
Hong Kong is a former British colony that returned to China’s rule in 1997 underneath a promise the town retain its Western-style civil liberties for 50 years. That promise has turn into more and more threadbare because the introduction of the safety regulation, which has led to the arrests and silencing of many main pro-democracy activists.
The governments of each Hong Kong and China have hailed the regulation for bringing again stability to the town.
Hong Kong, as soon as seen as a bastion of media freedom in Asia, ranked a hundred and fortieth out of 180 international locations and territories in Reporters With out Borders’ newest World Press Freedom Index. The group stated the town had seen an “unprecedented setback” since 2020, when the safety regulation was imposed.