Ex-publisher of Hong Kong’s Apple Daily denies police asked him to testify against Jimmy Lai, court hears
Hong Kong Free Press
The former publisher of pro-democracy newspaper Apple Daily has denied being asked to testify against his former employer Jimmy Lai by police, as the high-profile national security trial against the media mogul continued.
Cheung Kim-hung returned to the witness stand for his 11th day of testimony on Thursday afternoon. Cheung, who has pleaded guilty to conspiring to collude with foreign forces, is now acting as a witness for the prosecution.
The ex-publisher, who was a senior executive at Apple Daily before it was forced to close in June 2021, was arrested that month and has been in custody since.
Representing Lai, senior counsel Robert Pang continued his cross-examination of Cheung on Thursday, asking him to confirm that he was visited by a sergeant while in detention on November 11, a week after the most recent rejection of his bail application. The purpose of the visit was for the sergeant to show him a court document explaining why his bail application had been rejected, Pang said.
Pang said the sergeant had spent six hours with Cheung. The ex-publisher said in Cantonese he was not sure about the duration, but that it was “quite long.”
The court document was 10 pages, Pang added, and reading it “would not take very long.” Cheung said it probably took him around 20 minutes to read the document.
The next day, the sergeant visited Cheung in prison again, this time with another officer. Cheung confirmed that he told them he wanted to be a witness for the prosecution.
Pang asked Cheung if the sergeant had persuaded him to give evidence for the prosecution, or if he had been invited by police to give evidence as a prosecution witness. The ex-publisher rejected both claims.
When asked what he and the sergeant had spoken about during the “long period,” Cheung said they talked about “normal stuff” such as his life at the Lai Chi Kok Reception Centre, where he was being held.
“So you just chatted about life in general with a stranger?” Pang asked, to which Cheung said yes.
Cheung was employed by Apple Daily founder Lai. The 76-year-old media mogul faces charges of conspiring to collude with foreign forces under the national security law, and conspiring to publish “seditious” materials under the colonial-era law. He has pleaded not guilty and faces up to life in prison if convicted.
Before Cheung denied that he had been influenced by the sergeant to testify against Lai, Pang on Thursday displayed a copy of a letter from his law firm Lau & Chan addressed to Ivan Cheung, a government prosecutor at the Department of Justice, and dated December 16, 2021.
Cheung’s law firm wrote that it had been instructed that its client confirmed he was prepared to be a prosecution witness, and would provide assistance to the prosecution where required.
“In this regard, please let us know if you would like to drop any of the charges against our client or that you would confirm that our client will no longer be the defendant in this action,” the letter read.
During Wednesday’s session, Pang accused Cheung of placing a greater proportion of the blame on Lai in order to “receive a lighter sentence.”
Apple Daily halted operations in June 2021 after its newsroom was raided by police for a second time and several senior staff were arrested, Cheung among them. The publication was one of Hong Kong’s most prominent newspapers and was known for its entertainment coverage as well as its pro-democracy stance.
Ex-publisher’s testimony questioned
Cheung is among six senior Apple Daily employees who pleaded guilty to conspiring to collude with foreign forces in November 2022 and will be sentenced after Lai’s trial.
After Cheung, former associate publisher Chan Pui-man and editorial writer Yeung Ching-kee are also set to testify against Lai.
On Thursday, Pang also questioned a statement made by Cheung in court the previous day. Testifying on Wednesday, Cheung had said that when he visited Lai in custody in April 2021 and told him that some people thought Apple Daily should cease operations, Lai had rejected the suggestion.
“Why should we shut ourselves down? We should keep going until we are shut down while staying cautious in these times,” Cheung recalled Lai saying.
Pang said on Thursday: “I put it to you that Mr Lai never [said]… in any way or form that Apple Daily should continue until it was closed down by the authorities.”
“[I] disagree,” Cheung replied.
Lai’s trial is expected to last 80 days. He is appearing before a panel of three judges handpicked by the government to oversee national security cases, and no jury, a departure from the city’s common law system.
The media mogul, who has been detained since December 2020, is one of the most well-known figures to be charged under the national security law, which Beijing imposed in Hong Kong in June 2020 following months of protests and unrest. Apple Daily is not the only independent newsroom to have disbanded since the law was enacted – Stand News and Citizen News shuttered in December 2021, six months after Apple Daily’s closure.
Lai’s case is seen globally as a bellwether for the state of press freedom in Hong Kong, although authorities have maintained that the city still enjoys a high degree of media freedoms.
The trial was adjourned to Friday.
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