Hong Kong media tycoon Jimmy Lai has wrapped up his testimony in his high-profile national security trial after taking the witness stand for more than 50 days.
Jimmy Lai in 2020. Photo: HKFP.
Wearing a light grey blazer, Lai waved to his family members and supporters in the public gallery at a courtroom in the West Kowloon Law Courts Building as he was escorted back to the defendant’s dock on Thursday afternoon.
The 77-year-old, who founded the now-shuttered pro-democracy newspaper Apple Daily, has pleaded not guilty to conspiring to collude with foreign forces under the Beijing-imposed national security law and conspiring to publish seditious materials under colonial-era legislation.
On Thursday, Lai’s lawyer Steven Kwan showed his client WhatsApp conversations between him and his secretary, Julie, from November 2018. The conversation was about company meetings related to Food and Travel – a magazine under Next Digital Limited, Apple Daily’s parent group – and a US version of Apple Daily.
Lai spent about 15 minutes reading the dialogue during a court adjournment. After that, he confirmed with Kwan that those were messages he had sent to Julie, as well as messages Julie had sent to him.
Lawyer Steven Kwan arrives at West Kowloon Magistrates’ Courts, in Hong Kong, on September 19, 2024. Photo: Kyle Lam/HKFP.
Kwan then said that unless the judges had questions for Lai, this concluded his “epic evidence.”
The media mogul has testified for 52 days. His testimony began last November with his lawyer questioning him, followed by the prosecution’s cross-examination in January. After the prosecution finished their questioning earlier this week, Kwan began his re-examination.
He also told the court that after Joe Biden was elected as US president in 2019, he feared Biden would not continue his predecessor Donald Trump’s tough China policies.
Lai was chastised by Judge Esther Toh for failing to “contain” his emotions following one heated exchange between him and the prosecution, during which Lai appeared to have lost his temper and accused prosecutor Anthony Chau of “putting words in [his] mouth.”
Expert reports
On Thursday afternoon, after Lai was escorted back to the defendant’s dock by corrections officers, the defence introduced documents it was submitting to the court.
WhatsApp. Photo: Brett Jordan, via Pexels.
The first was a report by digital forensics expert Alan Walter Jeffries, which analysed the forwarding function on WhatsApp, used by Lai to communicate with activists. Jeffries works for D3 Forensics, a company specialising in data acquisition and digital forensics analysis.
A member of Lai’s legal team, Albert Wong, read out parts of Jeffries’ report. The expert wrote that he was tasked by law firm Robertsons with analysing WhatsApp’s forwarding tool.
Based on a series of tests he conducted on three phones – a Nokia device, a Xiaomi phone and an iPhone – Jeffries concluded that when a user forwarded a message sent to them by somebody else, the app indicated that the message had been forwarded. But when a user forwarded a message that they had written themselves, there were no indicators that this was a forwarded message.
Wong then said the defence team was also submitting more documents from Jeffries, including one on extracting messages from Lai’s phone, and another on downloading a video interview Lai did with pro-democracy political commentator Lau Sai-leung on July 6, 2020.
The Hong Kong Police Force emblem. Photo: Candice Chau/HKFP.
Another member of the legal team, Colman Li, read out the details of “letters of no objection” issued by police for rallies and marches during the 2019 protests and unrest. “Letters of no objection” are required for large-scale events.
He said that police issued eight letters of no objection for protests between April 2019 and January 2020 and that they issued two letters of objection – once for an August 2019 protest and another for a January 2020 protest.
144th day of trial
Thursday marked the 144th day of Lai’s national security trial, which was initially slated to take 80 days.
Lai has been remanded in custody since December 2020.
Earlier during the trial, six people who were charged alongside Lai – including four former Apple Daily employees – testified for the prosecution against the tycoon.
A man walks past barriers set up outside the West Kowloon Magistrates’ Courts in Hong Kong, on September 19, 2024. Photo: Kyle Lam/HKFP.
Paralegal Chan Tsz-wah and activist Andy Li, who were among the prosecution witnesses, pleaded guilty in 2021 to conspiring to collude with foreign forces in 2021, while the former Apple Daily staff members pleaded guilty to the same offence in 2022.
They are currently in remand and will be sentenced after Lai’s verdict is handed down.
