Heavily armed police were seen outside a Hong Kong courthouse
on Wednesday as pro-democracy media tycoon Jimmy Lai testified for
the first time in his years-long national security trial denying
he had tried to influence foreign policies against China.
It comes just a day after 45 democracy activists were
sent to prison for up to 10 years in a
separate national security case. Dozens of people queued in
the rain for a seat at the high profile trial
that could see the founder of the now shuttered pro-democracy
newspaper Apple Daily jailed for life. Lai has pleaded
not guilty to charges of conspiracy to collude with foreign
forces and to Published seditious material. Prosecutors alleged that
Lai had requested the US, among others, to
impose sanctions or blockade or engage in other hostile activities
against the Hong Kong and Chinese governments. They said
a 2019 meeting with top US officials in Donald Trump's
administration was an example coming as mass pro-democracy and anti-China
protests intensified. Under oath in court on Wednesday,
Lai said he only relayed what was happening in Hong
Kong and asked not for action to be taken but
for support to be voiced for the city. On
Trump, Lai said he had urged some newsroom staff
not to take a stance against the then US President
before Beijing imposed the national security law on Hong Kong
in July 2020. He told the court he had
hoped Trump could help stop. The law from being
passed, but he added he had neither met Trump
in person nor directly communicated with him. Lai also
said he opposed Hong Kong and Taiwan independence. Arrested
in August 2020, Lai was detained for some 1400
days before his trial kicked off last December. The
British and Hong Kong citizen is now separately serving a
nearly six-year prison term for fraud. Several diplomats,
including from the UK and US, attended Wednesday's hearing
. Both countries have called for Lai's release. Hong
Kong officials have said Lai will receive a fair trial
. His case is also shaping as a possible point
of friction between the US and China with the return
of Trump. The president-elect has said he would talk
to China's Xi Jinping and that it will be easy
to get Lai out.