Two Hong Kong judges hearing Jimmy Lai Chee-ying’s national security trial have expressed reservations about the defence characterising the former media boss’s alleged endeavours to trigger Western sanctions and foster hatred towards authorities as a legitimate exercise of fundamental rights.
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The 77-year-old Apple Daily tabloid founder’s legal team on Wednesday started presenting its closing arguments at West Kowloon Court after the prosecution made their final remarks in his case of conspiracies to print seditious publications and collude with foreign forces.
Senior counsel Robert Pang Yiu-hung opened his speech by hitting out at what he saw as prosecutors’ attempt to “denigrate” human rights and dismiss it as “an alien concept”.
He stressed it was not a crime to oppose “police brutality”, an allegation that was rife during the 2019 anti-government protests, to be concerned with a now-scrapped extradition bill which might have far-reaching consequences, or to dislike the powers that be.
“You can’t force someone to think in one way or another,” the lawyer said. “Nor is it wrong to hope that the government would change its policies, whether through its own internal review or through suggestion or even pressure, whether from inside Hong Kong or out.”
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Madam Justice Esther Toh Lye-ping, one of three presiding High Court judges, said the charges were not as simple as that.