By South China Morning Post | Created at 2024-11-20 02:26:25 | Updated at 2024-11-20 04:34:28
2 hours ago
Former media tycoon Jimmy Lai Chee-ying is taking to the stand at his national security trial in Hong Kong for the first time on Wednesday, almost a year after the hearing started, with some people queuing up overnight to secure a seat in the court’s public gallery.
Police have deployed dozens of officers outside West Kowloon Court, where his hearing has been held since December 18 last year.
But security measures at the court were noticeably more relaxed compared with Tuesday, when more than 100 officers were deployed amid the sentencing hearing for a landmark subversion trial involving 45 opposition activists.
The force’s “Sabre-tooth tiger” anti-riot vehicle was not present outside the court entrance, unlike on Tuesday, while cars entering the court building were still subject to checks.
A smaller crowd than a day earlier also lined up outside the court to attend the hearing, with about 100 people queuing for a spot from 6.30am onwards amid the downpour. All of them managed to enter the building by 8.22am.
Lai’s defence lawyer is expected to question him for at least five days before the cross-examination begins.
The 76-year-old former tycoon has been kept at the maximum-security Stanley Prison and the Lai Chi Kok Reception Centre for the three years and 11 months after being arrested, remanded or jailed for various national security-related and other offences since December 2020.
For the current trial, Lai, a vehement critic of Beijing, has pleaded not guilty to two conspiracy charges of collusion with foreign forces under the national security law and a third count of conspiracy to print and distribute seditious publications in relation to his now-closed Apple Daily tabloid newspaper.
