Hong Kong political freedoms in spotlight during bumper trial week
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Media mogul Jimmy Lai Chee-ying, founder of Apple Daily, was charged under the national security law.
PHOTO: REUTERS
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HONG KONG - The erosion of political freedoms in Hong Kong will come under the spotlight this week with key developments in two high-profile national security trials.
On Nov 20, jailed tycoon and pro-democracy activist Jimmy Lai will testify in his collusion trial, breaking the silence he has kept over five previous trials and almost four years in jail.
He will take the stand the day after the sentencing of 45 pro-democracy politicians and activists for a subversion case triggered by their holding an unofficial election primary.
Both cases could carry sentences of up to life in prison.
Western countries and international rights groups have condemned the two trials as evidence of Hong Kong’s increased authoritarianism since Beijing imposed a national security law
“These are two cases that epitomise the collapse of human rights in Hong Kong since (then),” Amnesty International’s China director Sarah Brooks told AFP.
“Not only have these prosecutions been draconian; they have also been cruel – dragged out for several years with no regard for the lives and families shattered along the way.”
But China and Hong Kong say the law has restored order after the city was rocked by massive, sometimes violent pro-democracy protests in 2019, and have warned against “interference” from other countries.
Lai in witness box
The charges against Lai
The 76-year-old is facing two counts of “conspiracy to collusion” and one count of “conspiracy to publish seditious publications”.
He has pleaded not guilty.
Lai has been behind bars for nearly four years, with the Apple Daily newsroom and his home among the first targets of major police raids soon after the 2020 national security law came into force.
In September, his son said Lai was struggling in solitary confinement inside a 38 deg C cell.
Since the prosecution opened in January, it has sought to mount the case that dozens of Hong Kong and foreign politicians and scholars – including former US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo – were Lai’s foreign contacts and “agents”.
Six other Apple Daily executives who faced similar charges have pleaded guilty, with some of them testifying against Lai.
Lai is also accused of supporting two young activists lobbying for foreign sanctions via a protest group called “Stand With Hong Kong”.
Among others, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and the United States’ President-elect Donald Trump have openly appealed for Lai’s release
Largest trial finale
Protest organisers (left to right) Lester Shum, Alex Chow, Joshua Wong and Benny Tai addressing protesters, in response to the government’s cancellation of the scheduled talks in October 2014.
ST PHOTO: KUA CHEE SIONG
Another national security trial, the city’s largest by number of defendants, will come to a close the day before Lai steps into the witness box.
Led by Benny Tai, a prominent constitutional and human rights law scholar, the defendants include former lawmakers, unionists, lawyers, social workers and journalists – a cross-section of the city’s once-vibrant political opposition.
Initially, 47 people were charged
The group’s plan if they won the election was to force the government to meet the 2019 protesters’ demands – including universal suffrage – by threatening to indiscriminately veto the budget.
The judges ruled the group would have created “a constitutional crisis” had they proceeded.
Two of the original 47 were acquitted.
On Nov 19, three senior judges handpicked by the government to try security cases will sentence the remaining 45 convicted of “conspiracy to subvert the state’s power”. AFP
