HONG KONG - A Hong Kong court on Thursday (July 25) dismissed a bid by the legal team for jailed democrat Jimmy Lai to terminate his national security trial, ruling that prosecutors had sufficient prima facie evidence for all three charges faced by him and for the trial to proceed.
Three national security judges ruled Lai has a case to answer in the trial. If convicted, he could face a life sentence.
Judge Esther Toh said "having considered all the submissions we ruled that the first defendant (Lai) has a case to answer on all the charges".
Lai, 76, the founder of 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.
Thursday marked day 92 of the high-profile trial that began on Dec 18 and was originally expected to last for 80 days.
Defence lawyers led by Robert Pang applied on Wednesday to terminate the proceedings and to seek Lai's acquittal on the grounds that there was "no case to answer", arguing that the prosecution's evidence was insufficient.
Beijing imposed the security law on Hong Kong in 2020 after months of pro-democracy protests.
Pang argued that something agreed before the national security law would not make it become illegal automatically, but the law made the earlier legal agreements invalid.
"There may be some evidence on some agreement whether to publish certain articles, there may be some evidence on some agreement to work with some organisations, but there's no evidence after the (national security law) was promulgated," Pang said.
"Whatever was agreed previously, when calling for sanctions was perfectly lawful, was not agreed subsequently," Pang said.
In response to the prosecution's allegation that Lai used the Apple Daily as a platform to conspire, Pang said "that's a very strange allegation, because Apple Daily is a newspaper, newspapers can have different views on the spectrum".
Pang stressed that freedom of press is guaranteed under the city's mini-constitution, the Basic Law and the bill of rights ordinance.
Pang said several witnesses mentioned that Apple Daily has consulted lawyers on how not to breach the national security law, so there's "positive evidence" that the agreement was to comply with the law.
The prosecution finished laying out its case of Lai's alleged collusion with foreign forces and sedition in June.
A total of eight witnesses have been called by the prosecution, including five defendants who have pleaded guilty earlier.
Lai, a British citizen, has been detained in solitary confinement for over three years since December 2020. He is currently serving a five year and nine months sentence for fraud after he was convicted of violating a lease contract for Apple Daily's headquarters.
Britain and the United States have called for Lai's immediate release, saying the case is politically motivated. Hong Kong officials say Lai will receive a fair trial.
Both the Chinese and Hong Kong governments said the national security law has restored the city's stability.
Western governments have expressed concern that the law is part of an effort by Beijing to end dissent and freedoms guaranteed to Hong Kong when it was handed over to China from British rule in 1997.
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