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Jimmy Lai, a pro-democracy media tycoon from Hong Kong, appeared in court docket Monday for alleged nationwide safety violations, with a number of Western governments and human rights teams urging his rapid launch.
Lai, 76, who has been detained since December 2020, arrived in court docket at 10 a.m., amid tight safety on expenses of conspiring with international forces in violation of the Nationwide Safety Regulation, or NSL, that China imposed on town in June 2020.
Beijing launched the NSL in response to huge pro-democracy protests, insisting that the legislation was essential to quell unrest. The legislation criminalizes a number of broadly outlined offenses together with secession, subversion, collusion with international forces and terrorist actions.
A yr after it was imposed, Amnesty Worldwide mentioned the legislation had “decimated” town’s rights and freedoms.
One of the vital outspoken critics of China, Lai, the writer of the now-defunct Apple Each day, was initially detained in August 2020 throughout a police raid on the newspaper’s officers.
Lai was usually on the frontline of pro-democracy protests, such because the Umbrella Motion in 2014 and demonstrations towards an extradition invoice in 2019.
The trial earlier than three nationwide safety judges, with out a jury, on the metropolis’s Excessive Court docket is predicted to final 80 days. It was scheduled to start a yr in the past however postponed subsequent to the federal government’s objection to the choice of protection counsel Timothy Owen, a barrister based mostly within the U.Ok., and its pursuit of intervention from Beijing.
Lai and the Apple Each day are additionally each topic to accusations underneath a British colonial-era sedition legislation. He has pleaded not responsible to all expenses.
Lai’s case has brought on a world uproar and is broadly thought to be a check of town’s judicial independence.
Late Sunday, British International Secretary David Cameron mentioned he was “gravely involved” concerning the trial, calling for the rapid launch of Lai, a British citizen.
“As a outstanding and outspoken journalist and writer, Jimmy Lai has been focused in a transparent try and cease the peaceable train of his rights to freedom of expression and affiliation,” Cameron mentioned in a assertion, including that the safety legislation was in breach of the commitments China made to Hong Kong when it resumed sovereignty over the territory in 1997.
The 1984 Sino-British Joint Declaration included a promise to retain Hong Kong’s rights and freedoms for 50 years after it was returned to China’s rule.
“I urge the Chinese language authorities to repeal the Nationwide Safety Regulation and finish the prosecution of all people charged underneath it,” Cameron mentioned.
“I name on the Hong Kong authorities to finish their prosecution and launch Jimmy Lai.”
Individually, the USA referred to as for Lai’s rapid launch and condemned the prosecution.
“Lai has been held in pre-trial detention for greater than 1,000 days, and Hong Kong and Beijing authorities have denied him his selection of authorized illustration,” U.S. State Division spokesperson Matthew Miller mentioned in a assertion. “We name on Hong Kong authorities to instantly launch Jimmy Lai and all others imprisoned for defending their rights.”
Forward of the trial, the New York-based Committee to Defend Journalists additionally launched a assertion, calling for town to launch Lai, whereas Human Rights Watch condemned the trial as a “travesty.”
Edited by Mike Firn.
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