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Jimmy Lai, the 76-year-old laminitis of the now-defunct Hong Kong tabloid Apple Daily, is taking the basal connected Wednesday successful a nationalist information proceedings that whitethorn spot him sentenced to beingness imprisonment.
He is accused of colluding with overseas forces by utilizing his media level to reason the government.
This is his archetypal clip testifying successful court, adjacent though helium has undergone aggregate trials since 2020 - each wide seen arsenic politically motivated.
Lai is 1 of the astir influential pro-democracy figures successful the city, which has travel nether an progressively terrible crackdown from Beijing.
His proceeding connected Wednesday comes 1 time aft the sentencing of 45 pro-democracy campaigners - portion of a radical known arsenic the Hong Kong 47 - successful the city’s largest proceedings nether the nationalist information law.
Lai’s ongoing proceedings concerns allegations that Apple Daily published articles supporting the pro-democracy protests that rocked the metropolis successful 2019, which were seen by Beijing arsenic a menace to nationalist stability.
Lai argued connected Wednesday that helium opposed unit and that advocating for Hong Kong independency was "too brainsick to deliberation about".
He said that "the halfway values of Apple Daily are really the halfway values of the radical of Hong Kong". These values, helium said, see the "rule of law, freedom, pursuit of democracy, state of speech, state of religion, state of assembly.”
He said that helium joined the media manufacture to "participate successful delivering freedom”.
He faces a condemnation up to beingness imprisonment if convicted of collusion.
English (US)