Former media boss Jimmy Lai Chee-ying has maintained he had reasonable grounds to predict the demise of Hong Kong’s rule of law and status as an international financial hub under the national security legislation, while rejecting prosecutors’ claims he stirred up fear among residents over Beijing’s tightened grip on the city.
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The founder of the now-defunct Apple Daily tabloid newspaper returned to the witness box at West Kowloon Court on Monday as prosecutors continued grilling him over what they argued were spurious guesses about Hong Kong’s future after the Beijing-imposed law took effect in June 2020.
The 77-year-old defendant is contesting two conspiracy charges of collusion with foreign forces and a third of conspiracy to print and distribute seditious publications in his marathon national security trial.
Prosecutors highlighted four commentary articles Lai wrote for Apple Daily and a live broadcast interview he gave on social media to allege that he intended to incite disaffection towards central and local authorities with a series of unfounded remarks.
Tensions grew between the bench and the witness box as Lai’s oral testimony entered its 45th day, with Madam Justice Esther Toh Lye-ping slamming Lai for levelling gratuitous allegations at prosecutors without giving direct answers to their questions in cross-examination.
In response to prosecutors’ allegations that he had drawn unwarranted comparisons between Hong Kong and Xinjiang in one of the articles, Lai maintained that his grim prediction that Hong Kong would lose its freedom and rule of law was not without basis.