Hong Kong media tycoon Jimmy Lai, who based native newspaper Apple Daily, prepares to placed on a face masks earlier than getting into a courtroom in Hong Kong on May 5, 2020.

Kin Cheung/AP

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Hong Kong media tycoon Jimmy Lai, who based native newspaper Apple Daily, prepares to placed on a face masks earlier than getting into a courtroom in Hong Kong on May 5, 2020.

Kin Cheung/AP

HONG KONG — A landmark nationwide safety trial opened Monday in Hong Kong for outstanding activist publisher Jimmy Lai, who faces a attainable life sentence if convicted below a regulation imposed by Beijing to crush dissidents.

Lai, 76, was arrested in August 2020 throughout a crackdown on town’s pro-democracy motion below the sweeping nationwide safety regulation enacted following enormous protests 4 years in the past. He is charged with colluding with overseas forces to hazard nationwide safety and conspiring with others to place out seditious publications.

The carefully watched case — tied to the now-shuttered pro-democracy newspaper Apple Daily that Lai based — is broadly seen as a trial of press freedom and a take a look at for judicial independence within the Asian monetary hub.

China promised that the previous British colony might retain its Western-style civil liberties for 50 years after returning to Chinese rule in 1997. But in recent times, the Hong Kong authorities has severely restricted free speech and meeting and nearly eradicated political opposition below the rubric of sustaining nationwide safety. Many main activists had been arrested, silenced or compelled into self-exile.

Lai’s trial is Hong Kong’s first on fees of collusion with overseas forces. It additionally targets three firms associated to Apple Daily.

Lai smiled at his supporters after he walked into the courtroom. Some members of the general public waved at Lai to indicate their assist. Hong Kong’s Roman Catholic Cardinal Joseph Zen, a vocal democracy advocate within the metropolis, was among the many attendees.

Three judges, authorised by the federal government, are overseeing the proceedings. The trial is predicted to final about 80 days.

Last yr, six former Apple Daily executives entered responsible pleas to collusion fees, admitting to the courtroom they conspired with Lai to name for sanctions or different hostile actions in opposition to Hong Kong or China. They had been convicted and await sentencing behind bars.

Activist Alexandra Wong, also referred to as Grandma Wong, is escorted right into a barricade exterior West Kowloon Magistrates’ Courts, the place activist writer Jimmy Lai’s trial is scheduled to open, in Hong Kong, Monday, Dec. 18, 2023.

Vernon Yuen/AP

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Activist Alexandra Wong, also referred to as Grandma Wong, is escorted right into a barricade exterior West Kowloon Magistrates’ Courts, the place activist writer Jimmy Lai’s trial is scheduled to open, in Hong Kong, Monday, Dec. 18, 2023.

Vernon Yuen/AP

Some of the previous executives, alongside two others who additionally pleaded responsible to collusion fees, are anticipated to testify as witnesses for the prosecution of Lai.

Outside the courtroom constructing, there was a heavy police presence. Dozens of residents queued as much as attend the listening to hours earlier than its begin.

Jolly Chung, 29, was among the many first within the line, saying she would attempt to get in to look at the proceedings every time she will be able to.

“As a Hong Konger, I want to witness this, even though I know he will lose,” she stated.

Andy Sung, in his 40s, stated he got here to witness historical past. “Choosing to come here is a small practice of some sort of resistance,” he stated.

Lai’s trial was initially scheduled to begin final December however was postponed whereas the Hong Kong authorities appealed to Beijing to successfully block his try to rent a British protection lawyer. City authorities subsequently barred the lawyer, Timothy Owen, from representing Lai, saying it could doubtless pose nationwide safety dangers.

Last week, Lai’s son Sebastien met with Britain’s overseas secretary, David Cameron, to foyer for Britain’s assist in releasing his father, who holds British citizenship.

Cameron stated in a press release that the safety regulation is a “clear breach” of the Sino-British Joint Declaration and its continued use exhibits China has damaged its worldwide commitments.

British and Chinese authorities signed the settlement in 1984, stipulating that Hong Kong would retain a excessive diploma of autonomy and freedoms for 50 years.

Cameron stated he was notably involved by the “politically motivated prosecution” of Lai. He urged Chinese officers to repeal the safety regulation and launch Lai.

“Jimmy Lai has been targeted in a clear attempt to stop the peaceful exercise of his rights to freedom of expression and association,” Cameron stated.

The U.S. condemned the prosecution of Lai and urged authorities in Hong Kong and Beijing to respect press freedom, U.S. State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller stated.

“We call on Hong Kong authorities to immediately release Jimmy Lai and all others imprisoned for defending their rights,” he stated.

The chairpersons of the U.S. Congressional-Executive Commission on China stated in a press release that the trial is a “political prosecution plain and simple and another sad example of the Hong Kong government’s increasingly repressive policies.” They additionally referred to as for Lai’s launch and urged authorities to drop the fees in opposition to him.

Hong Kong, as soon as seen as a bastion of media freedom in Asia, ranked a hundred and fortieth out of 180 international locations and territories in Reporters Without Borders’ newest World Press Freedom Index. The group stated town had seen an “unprecedented setback” since 2020, when the safety regulation was imposed.

Online information outlet Stand News, identified for its brazenly important stance in opposition to the Hong Kong authorities, was compelled to close down below the crackdown, with its two former high editors being charged with sedition.

The governments of each Hong Kong and China have hailed the regulation for bringing again stability to town.