Lawyers representing Hong Kong’s Jimmy Lai grilled over failing to question key witness about Slack chat records

Jimmy Lai’s defence seeking to question ex-publisher Cheung Kim-hung about internal chat records on Slack, which included abstracts of various ‘lunchbox meetings’ among Apple Daily executives

‘Your client is the one who had the Slack records. It’s mind-boggling to think you do not know about [the] Slack records,’ judge says

Reading Time:2 minutes

Jimmy Lai’s defence team has requested to re-open it cross-examination of a key prosecution witness. Photo: AP

Published: 6:02pm, 14 May 2024Updated: 7:36pm, 14 May 2024

Judges hearing Jimmy Lai Chee-ying’s trial have grilled the Hong Kong media mogul’s lawyers for failing to question a key prosecution witness about contentious workplace messages during earlier proceedings.

Lai’s legal team on Tuesday appeared unable to convince the three justices sitting at West Kowloon Court to allow them to reopen their cross-examination of former Apple Daily publisher Cheung Kim-hung.

The defence is seeking to question Cheung about the now-defunct tabloid’s internal messaging records on workplace communication app Slack.

Those records included the abstracts of various “lunchbox meetings” among Apple Daily executives. Lai allegedly delivered his instructions to senior editorial staff during those meetings, including ones directing his newspaper to drum up support for the 2019 anti-government protests.

Defence Senior Counsel Robert Pang Yiu-hung maintained the existence of such records only came to their knowledge during Cheung’s oral testimony in court.

Defence lawyers say they only knew the Slack chat records existed during ex-publisher Cheung Kim-hung’s oral testimony. Photo: Dickson Lee

“If we do not put this matter to the witness, then that will substantially prejudice my client,” Pang said.