2023-12-18 10:09:56
Jimmy Lai, in Hong Kong, July 1, 2020. VINCENT YU / AP
On the first day of his trial for sedition and “conspiracy with foreign forces”, Jimmy Lai arrived several minutes before the court, flanked by three young guards in khaki jumpsuits, to join the accused box of court number 3 of the Palace of Hong Kong justice, in West Kowloon, Monday December 18. Opposition figure, the former tycoon of the Next Media press group, which notably published the very popular daily Apple Daily, showed a calm smile. He has lost weight, but his loved ones find him in “pretty good shape”.
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He looked around for his wife and two of his children who were in the audience, with whom he exchanged a few affectionate gestures. He has already spent more than 1,000 days in prison. He is serving a sentence of five years and nine months in prison for “fraud”, a commercial dispute which should have resulted at worst in a fine, according to business lawyers consulted. He risks ending his life behind bars at the end of this new trial which many think is a foregone conclusion.
The police left nothing to chance by mobilizing a thousand police officers, sniffer dogs, a mine clearance patrol and promising thorough searches and checks of all participants. In fact, the atmosphere around and inside the courthouse was not particularly tense, with the exception of the indeed massive presence of law enforcement in the surrounding streets and corridors of the courthouse .
In addition to a hundred journalists, around three hundred sympathizers came to attend this symbolic trial. The consulates present in Hong Kong had almost all sent representatives but not heads of mission. The entire public was able to enter and there were still places to follow the trial in the adjacent courtyards with live video broadcast. The authorities seem keen to preserve the forms and to keep this trial… the appearance of a trial.
Press freedom trial
The three judges with their roller wigs and red and black robes had barely entered when the trial immediately got down to details (words and dates). This first part of the hearing concerns “conspiracy to commit sedition”. Jimmy Lai and his press group are accused of publishing articles calling for rebellion against the authorities. The defense argued that the deadlines established by law were not respected. While the other crimes of which Jimmy Lai is accused are defined by the new national security law, imposed by Beijing in 2020, the crime of sedition is covered by a colonial law, written in 1917 and amended several times since.
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