Major prosecution witness can start testifying against ex-boss Jimmy Lai without tycoon’s top defence lawyer present, legal team tells Hong Kong court

Trial judges have allowed Robert Pang SC, who leads a team of six barristers representing Lai, to take temporary leave to handle a private matter

Lai’s legal team says the first major witness, former Apple Daily publisher Cheung Kim-hung, can provide testimony for the prosecution before Pang cross-examines him

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Jimmy Lai’s lawyers Robert Pang (right) and Marc Corlett head to court last week. Photo: Eugene Lee

Published: 6:35pm, 9 Jan 2024Updated: 7:45pm, 9 Jan 2024

The ex-publisher of the now-folded Apple Daily tabloid can start giving evidence against his former boss Jimmy Lai Chee-ying before the Hong Kong media mogul’s leading counsel returns from a two-week absence, the defence has told the tycoon’s national security trial.

Discussions about arrangements for the 80-day trial were brought up in court on Tuesday after the presiding judges allowed Robert Pang Yiu-hung SC, who leads a team of six barristers representing Lai, to take temporary leave to handle a private matter.

Lai’s legal team had earlier suggested the hearing of key evidence in the case be put on hold until Pang’s return but said on Tuesday that the first major witness, former publisher Cheung Kim-hung, could provide testimony for the prosecution before Pang cross-examined him.

Jimmy Lai (centre) is escorted by officers after police raid the Apple Daily offices in 2020. Photo: Winson Wong

Cheung and five other former senior Apple Daily executives are awaiting sentencing after admitting a charge of conspiracy to collude with foreign forces. Cheung, associate publisher Chan Pui-man and editorial writer Yeung Ching-kee have agreed to testify for the prosecution in exchange for reduced sentences.

Steven Kwan Man-wai, for Lai, added that the arrangement might require a brief adjournment of a few days after prosecutors put all their questions to Cheung and until Pang could resume work.

On the eighth day of the trial, the prosecution read out a statement by Chow Kam-pui, an associate professor at the University of Hong Kong’s department of computer science, who explained the features and operations of various social media platforms, including Facebook, YouTube and X, formerly Twitter.

The prosecution is expected to deliver a separate 35-page statement by a senior police inspector about the findings of a financial investigation into the case.