Hong Kong’s Jimmy Lai denies trying to skirt law with ‘indirect’ appeals for sanctions

He also rejects accusations of inciting hatred in a commentary in which he mentioned friends intimidated by alleged Communist Party agent

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Former media boss Jimmy Lai says he believed the national security law would compel the people to change the way they behaved in public. Photo: AFP

Published: 8:01pm, 9 Dec 2024Updated: 8:39pm, 9 Dec 2024

Former media boss Jimmy Lai Chee-ying has denied trying to circumvent the national security law through “indirect” appeals for sanctions from the West, but said he decided to continue to give interviews with “good” media outlets overseas regarding his political views.

Lai also pushed back at allegations previously laid out in his high-profile national security trial that he intended to incite hatred through a July 2020 commentary, in which he attacked Beijing by referring to rumours about his friends being intimidated by an alleged agent of the Communist Party.

West Kowloon Court continued to hear evidence from the founder of the now-defunct Apple Daily tabloid newspaper on Monday, his 13th day of oral testimony.

The 77-year-old has denied two conspiracy charges of collusion with foreign forces under the Beijing-decreed security legislation, as well as a third count of conspiracy to print and distribute seditious publications in breach of colonial-era legislation.

Lai has admitted calling for sanctions from the United States before Beijing’s imposition of the security law on June 30 of 2020, but maintained he had ceased all acts that would be considered criminal under the new legal regime.

In an interview with political commentator Simon Lau Sai-leung on July 2, 2020, Lai predicted that life under the national security law would be similar to an “intangible prison”, with people constantly fearing they might breach the “very vague” red lines.