[ad_1]
Judge is denying new bail to the 73-year-old media mogul, who is being accused of conspiring with foreign forces to endanger China’s national security.
Prominent media mogul and pro-democracy activist Jimmy Lai appeared in court on Saturday to face charges of collusion with foreign forces.
Lai, 73, struggled to walk when two masked policemen brought him to court handcuffed and on a metal chain.
Former members of the Legislative Council, Catholic Cardinal Joseph Zen, as well as some protesters, appeared in court to express their support for Lai.
Lai’s main accusation is collusion with foreign forces to endanger national security when he called for sanctions against Hong Kong and Chinese authorities from July to December this year.
Outrageous. #Hong Kong citizens I will never forget this: pic.twitter.com/Bxbgn04qoH
– Maya Wang 王松莲 (@wang_maya) December 12, 2020
Prosecutors told the court that his main evidence in the case is Lai’s Twitter account, in which he expressed his political views, something that legal experts noted is a protected speech.
Prosecutors asked the court to postpone the case until April 16, 2021, saying police need time to read thousands of Lai’s posts on social media and review the interviews he has given to the media.
‘Unnecessary detention’
Lai’s defense attorney, Peter Duncan, asked the court to grant his client bail to avoid unnecessary detention, but the judge, personally chosen by Chief Executive Officer Carrie Lam, rejected the request.
Lai, a fervent critic of Beijing, is the highest-profile person charged under a comprehensive new national security law imposed on the Chinese-ruled city in June.
The security law punishes what Beijing broadly defines as secession, subversion, terrorism and collusion with foreign forces with up to life imprisonment.
It has been condemned by the West and human rights groups as a tool to crush dissent in the semi-autonomous city ruled by China.
Authorities in Hong Kong and Beijing defended the law, which was imposed in June, saying it is vital to plug holes in national security defenses exposed by months of sometimes violent anti-government and anti-China protests that rocked the city during the last year.
Lai was denied bail earlier this month after his arrest on a separate count of fraud related to the leasing of a building that houses his Apple Daily, an anti-government tabloid.
Apple Daily was also raided by authorities in August, in what authorities consider an act of intimidation.
Lai had been a frequent visitor to Washington, where he met with officials, including Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, to rally support for Hong Kong’s democracy, prompting Beijing to label him a “traitor.”
Meanwhile, a Hong Kong court acquitted political activist Andy Chan on Saturday, who was charged by the police with illegal assembly and assaulting the police in July.
The Kowloon court said the prosecution could not prove that Chan, the founder of the now-banned Hong Kong National Party, was involved in the protest mentioned by the police.
Chan was detained last year while on his way to speak at a conference in the Japanese capital, Tokyo.
[ad_2]
