Jimmy Lai’s collusion etc NatSec trial starts next week. Meanwhile, he is convicted of using 0.1% of the Apple Daily HQ (at a public-sector business park) for non Apple Daily use. A minor breach of lease conditions sounds like a civil case – but someone decided they must pursue him for criminal fraud.
The Court of Final Appeal today hears the government’s last (or at least latest) attempt to bar Timothy Owen KC from defending Lai in the NatSec case. State-owned media carry quotes from a pro-Beijing commentator saying use of a foreign lawyer poses a national-security threat, and the trial could be moved to the Mainland. And more. (Who wants to take bets on the CFA folding?)
Aaron Mc Nicholas on the Apple Daily content likely to be used as evidence…
After listing the title and the date of publication, prosecutors use the phrase “despite its appearance as a news article,” before going on to describe how the content deviates from news reporting. In many examples, the document asserts that the offending content actually served as an appeal to the public to take part in a particular protest, served to incite hatred against the Hong Kong police or against the Chinese central government, or served to praise acts of violence during the 2019 social unrest.
…The pattern of calling into question whether Apple Daily’s news coverage was truly news continues throughout the document…
…“Lai’s Twitter account contained English content with tagging or interaction with external elements, including various political figures, representatives, agents of and/or persons affiliated with the US, UK, Japan, the Taiwan region, etc.”
From our own comments, ‘Del Boy’ makes a prediction…
I know exactly what Jimmy Lai’s QC will be doing. He won’t even get near discussing the various charges against the man. He will simply rip into the court proceedings, pointing out how none of it is compliant with either common law or the basic law … [He] will take his report back to Europe and the United Nations … Jimmy’s going to jail anyway. He’s going to go there with the satisfaction of knowing the territory ‘elite’ will be further isolated from the global community.
What’s the odds that the CFA turn down the Justice [sic] Department only for the Immigration Dept to stop the KC entering…
Well none at all apparently, because Mr Owen appeared in person at the CFA hearing today.
The only factor in the determination of whether the KC will be allowed to represent Mr. Lai is the will of the CCP. They alone will decide.
On the basis that the CCP cannot countenance a scintilla of disagreement or defiance, the chances of Mr. Owen appearing on Mr. Lai’s behalf are slim and none.
The means by which the CCP contrive to achieve their desired outcome are, as a practical matter, immaterial.
The Learned Friend was once married into the Redgrave clan; this is getting interesting.
@Sam Clemens
At this point, I suspect Owen’s attendance at the trial is rather like Indiana Jones’s contribution to “Raiders of the Lost Ark”: completely irrelevant to the outcome.
Option 1: The CFA let Owen on the case.
Result: Owen highlights how rule of law and the HK legal system is fundamentally broken under the new police state.
Option 2: The CFA don’t let Owen on the case.
Result: The CFA highlights how rule of law and the HK legal system is fundamentally broken under the new police state.
Option 3: The CFA let Owen on the case and the HKSARG then cooks up some new retroactive legislation to disallow him.
Result: The HKSARG really go to town on highlighting how rule of law and the HK legal system is fundamentally broken under the new police state.
Decisions, decisions…
Meanwhile in other ‘Apple’ connected news, rioting is going on in Zhengzhou at the Foxconn plant there
Court Short
Option 1 requires Owen to perform. Maybe, maybe not.
@HKJC Irregular – yes, Tim Owen was previously married to one of the Redgraves, but perhaps more interesting in relation to the Jimmy Lai case is the background of his current wife: https://reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/people/wei-du.
@Low Profile: Very interesting, indeed. With a Han Chinese outsider now entangled in the drama (whether she likes it or not despite inevitable protestations of being “neutral” and having “journalistic integrity”), she will undoubtedly be co-opted in some way by the CCP since ALL ethnic Han Chinese, regardless of nationality, are considered to be agents of the Motherland with the resolute responsibility to do the bidding of the CCP.
That Owen didn’t (or maybe he DID) anticipate that tack, now opens him to many cans of worms and makes him a compromised individual.
OT but:
The Chief Enforcer having personally just proved that being covid vaccinated up to the eyeballs (unless he’s lying) does not prevent infection, nevertheless
City leader urges residents to get vaccinated to protect themselves from infection
@wmjp
Assuming he’s not lying and is indeed vaccinated, I’m willing to bet he chose the Patriotic Vaccine ™ as opposed to the dirty foreign one.
He thus proves the inefficacy of Sinovac, adding another log to the fire of Sinovac giving COVID vaccines a bad name.
Tam Yiu-chung, the city’s sole delegate to China’s top legislative body has warned that it will have to step in to “make adjustments” to the national security law if Hong Kong’s top court upholds a ruling that allows a prominent British barrister to defend media mogul Jimmy Lai Chee-ying in his coming trial.
What was that about independence of the Judiciary?