Overseas coverage of Jimmy Lai will peak when the verdict comes through in the coming weeks or months (unless it’s ‘not guilty’). Meanwhile, it’s about the conclusion of the trial. To spare others the trouble, the SCMP summarizes some basic facts…
After more than 1,700 days in custody and a trial that spanned more than 1½ years, former media boss Jimmy Lai Chee-ying is now waiting for a verdict to be delivered in his marathon national security trial.
And adds…
In the trial, Lai branded himself a political prisoner and insisted his grim predictions regarding the city’s economic slump and deprivation of residents’ fundamental freedoms had come to pass as Beijing was tightening its grip on the city.
Those comments did not move the three judges hearing his case, with one justice reiterating that Lai was in court “purely for legal reasons”. The judges also stressed they would not be intimidated by “foreign elements” attempting to interfere with their judgment through sanctions.
A Guardian report on the conclusion of the trial…
In court, Lai’s defence team said prosecutors had failed to provide sufficient evidence for the claims of conspiring with Li, Chan, or other alleged co-conspirators to request foreign sanctions after the NSL’s introduction.
Marc Corlett KC said that the prosecution’s submission that Lai stayed in contact with former US defence officials “goes in no way to demonstrate” their case because those individuals had not been named as “co-conspirators”.
The senior counsel Robert Pang had earlier defended Apple Daily, saying “it is not wrong to support freedom of expression. It is not wrong to support human rights.”
A Globe and Mail op-ed…
…Hong Kong was a symbol of what people could achieve if they were simply allowed a little freedom. It had a robust press; a professional civil service; an independent judiciary to protect property and individual rights; an open laissez-faire economy – in short, all the ingredients for dramatic success.
Now all of that is at risk. A stifling miasma blown in from the mainland has enveloped the teeming, vital, electric place I knew. The trial of Jimmy Lai, which wrapped up this week, is only the latest sign of this heartbreaking change.
…The charges against [Jimmy Lai] are ludicrous. He stands accused under Hong Kong’s national security law of “conspiracy to collude with foreign forces.” At his 156-day trial, prosecutors claimed that he was at the forefront of an international drive to impose sanctions against Hong Kong and China for suppressing protest and free speech.
Mr. Lai’s lawyers note that his grand conspiracy amounted to little beyond speaking up for what he thought was right. In any case, his alleged conspiring happened before the security law took effect in 2020. The prosecutors pressed their case regardless.
The aim of all this was to make it seem as if, instead of a legitimate expression of anger, the Hong Kong protests were a foreign conspiracy to subvert the government. With his wealth, his unguarded views and his overseas friends, Mr. Lai was portrayed as the devious “mastermind” of this traitorous scheme.
The proceedings had the unmistakable ring of a Soviet show trial. Despite the sober setting of the Hong Kong courtroom and the trappings of British-style justice, the clear intent was to warn off anyone who might even be tempted to think about defying the government.
And a WSJ editorial…
Jimmy Lai’s drawn-out trial in Hong Kong on national-security charges finally concluded Thursday, and amid the wait for a verdict, China might consider what it has wrought. Mr. Lai, the former Hong Kong newspaper owner, is now arguably the world’s most popular political prisoner, nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize several times. President Trump says he will press Chinese President Xi Jinping for Mr. Lai’s release.
The trial began in 2023. Heavily armed police surround the courtroom whenever Mr. Lai appears, as though the 77-year-old might bust out like Billy the Kid. Hong Kong could never have put Mr. Lai on trial without China’s approval, and far from destroying Mr. Lai it has made him a hero. Perhaps Beijing could come to regret that Hong Kong turned the persecuted newspaperman into a global icon.
…China’s smartest play would be to release Mr. Lai home to his family, unless it wants even more international grief, if it lets Hong Kong turn this political prisoner into a full-fledged martyr.
Another big NatSec trial is due to begin in November – the Tiananmen vigil organizers.
The proceedings are indeed a Soviet-style show trial with British characteristics.
The three-judge panel in the large, well-lit courtroom wear their magisterial black and red robes as they sit atop a huge block of pale wood and gaze down upon the serried ranks of vulturous lawyers.
There are approximately 8 bewigged barristers representing each side, collecting enough money in daily fees to buy a flat in Repulse Bay. Behind them are at least 20 black-clad solicitors whose fees will buy a flat in Sai Ying Pun when this travesty of injustice finally concludes.
In the rear there is a large, courtroom-wide enclosed glass box equipped with several tiers of uncomfortable benches, within which sits Jimmy Lai, wearing reading glasses and holding a book in his hand. Occasionally, a couple of other prisoners join him in the box, sitting apart and scattered about on the benches. Presumably they are fellow prisoners on a remand in related cases, their sentencing held in abeyance until the conclusion of Jimmy Lai’s trial.
On the right-hand side of the room, facing the main well of the courtroom, is the public gallery, consisting of about 90 seats and occupied almost entirely by average Hong Kong people, with one or two representatives of foreign consulates sitting amongst them. There is a nearby courtroom that accommodates the spillover audience with a video feed of the proceedings.
Throughout the trial, Jimmy Lai has maintained his dignity. Despite his advanced age, mounting health issues and his having been held in solitary confinement for 23 hours a day for the past four years, he walks erect into the courtroom each day and holds his head high. He offers a kindly wave to the public gallery and a broad smile to his family members as he passes by. During his days of testimony and in spite of repeated provocations from the prosecution and occasionally the bench, he has spoken in a clear, strong voice throughout. His moral courage shines through.
Thanks to his abiding Christian faith, Jimmy Lai is an undefeated man, and the architects of this shameful prosecution and their minions shall be losers until their dying days.