After nearly two years of trial, the national security trial for Hong Kong media mogul Jimmy Lai is now over.
Watchers closely monitor the outcome of the case against Lai, 77, as a sign of the financial hub’s rule of law and freedoms, with the attention of world leaders and global rights organizations.
The trial’s closing arguments were held on Thursday following repeated delays caused by bad weather and concerns for Lai’s health, with a later judgment date being set.
What information is necessary here:
Jimmy Lai, who is he?
Lai was well-known for being one of Hong Kong’s most well-known rags-to-riches stories long before his trial for national security.
In the 1950s, he fled China and emigrated to then-British Hong Kong, where he established a business empire.
The now-closed pro-democracy tabloid Apple Daily was one of his business interests.
Lai was one of the few business leaders in Hong Kong to publicly support the city’s democratic movement and criticize the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), which seized control of the city in 1997.
Lai’s activism, according to Steve Tsang, director of the SOAS China Institute in the UK.
Jimmy Lai stands out from Beijing’s point of view because he is the most well-known and persistent tycoon who has used his wealth to support the Hong Kong democracy movement and thus challenges the CCP’s authority, Tsang told Al Jazeera.
According to Tsang, “this makes Lai a traitor who deserves severe punishment,” adding that the Chinese authorities demand that Lai be publicly criticized in order to “spy out others from following the same path.”
What fees are there?
Soon after Beijing enacted a national security law criminalizing secession, subversion, terrorism, and collusion with foreign forces, Lai was detained in August 2020.
Court proceedings finally started in December of this year, 2023, after numerous delays before the trial began.
According to a colonial-era statute, Lai is accused of conspiring with foreign forces on two counts under Beijing’s revised national security law and one count of sedition.
Prosecutors have accused Lai of encouraging residents of Hong Kong to march alongside the city’s anti-government demonstrations in 2019 and urging the United States and other foreign nations to impose sanctions on Hong Kong and Chinese governments.
Lai could face life in prison if found guilty under the national security law.
Lai has entered a not-guilty plea after already being found guilty of several crimes in connection with unauthorised assembly and fraud.
What causes controversy in his trial?
UN observers and Western governments have labeled the allegations against Lai as politically motivated.
According to Eric Yan-ho Lai, a research fellow at the Georgetown Center for Asian Law in Washington, DC, there have also been numerous irregularities throughout his prosecution.
According to Lai, who is not related, “He has been placed in solitary confinement and is suffering from arbitrarily detained” citing findings from the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention.
Before his trial started, analysts saw that he had been convicted of numerous counts of public order and commercial fraud.
After Beijing overrode the Hong Kong courts on national security grounds, the tycoon was also denied access to Timothy Owen, his lawyer of choice, in London.
Hong Kong’s words: what?
The Hong Kong government criticized the trial as a “smear campaign” and claimed that Lai’s case is being handled “severally on the basis of evidence and in accordance with the law.”
The government has also warned that commenting on the case might be seen as “an attempt to interfere with the court to exercise judicial power independently” and as “constitute perverting the court of justice”.
After the 2019 protests turned violent, Hong Kong’s authorities have also repeatedly criticized the national security law, arguing that it was required to bring peace and stability back to the former British colony.
When will the verdict be announced?
Although the court has not yet announced its decision, it may take weeks or even months.
Three national security judges appointed by Hong Kong’s chief executive, who is in charge of Beijing, will decide Lai’s guilt or innocence.
Tsang claimed that he was “99.99 percent certain” that Lai will be found guilty in all counts.
Given Lai’s prominence and increased government influence on Hong Kong’s judicial system, his opinion is shared by many observers.
According to the US consulate in Hong Kong, since June 30th, 207 people have been detained for national security offenses, 147 have been officially charged with crimes, and 108 have been found guilty.
