Home
/
RELIGION & LIBERTY ONLINE
/
Jimmy Lai coming up on one year in prison as new court date is set in pro-democracy activist’s case
Jimmy Lai coming up on one year in prison as new court date is set in pro-democracy activist’s case
Mar 18, 2025 12:40 PM

By the time Lai appears in court on Dec. 28 to face treason charges, he will have spent almost a year in prison, during which time his panies have been folded and six of his senior-ranking colleagues have all been arrested.

Read More…

Jimmy Lai, a 73-year-old Hong Kong media mogul, outspoken critic of China, pro-democracy activist, and recipient of the Acton Institute’s 2020 Faith and Freedom Award, will approach a year behind bars as his national security case is transferred to Hong Kong’s High Court and postponed to Dec. 28.

Lai was remanded on National Security Law (NSL) charges on New Year’s Eve 2020 after his appeal for bail was rejected. Lai’s new court date will make him three days shy of spending an entire year behind bars.

Lai, along with six former Apple Daily and Next Digital employees, who are also charged under the wide-sweeping NSL, appeared at the West Kowloon Magistrate’s Court on Oct. 12.

This is the first time Lai, founder of the Apple Daily newspaper and its pany, Next Digital Media Company, was seen alongside former staff members of his panies.

The six defendants are former CEO of Next Digital Cheung Kim-hung, Apple Daily’s former editor-in-chief Ryan Law, former associate publisher Chan Pui-man, former executive editor-in-chief Lam Man-chung, former editor-in-chief of Apple Daily’s English news section Fung Wai-kwong, and former editorial writer Yeung Ching-kee.

Defendants entered the court as a public gallery of supporters waved and offered encouragement, shouting, “Mr. Lai, hang in there,” according to the Hong Kong Free Press. The court session began 40 minutes after its scheduled start time.

The panies, Next Digital, Apple Daily, and Apple Daily Limited, spearheaded by Lai in response to Hong Kong’s anti-democratic policies, were not present at the hearing.

Lai has a litany of charges against him under the ever-restrictive NSL, including collusion with foreign forces, endangering national security, conspiracy with foreign forces and through a series of actions allegedly intended to pervert the course of justice, and unauthorized assembly. His former coworkers, much like Lai, did not escape the Hong Kong government’s tightening grip under the NSL, put into effect June 2020.

Cheung and Law, along with the panies, stand accused of conspiring with Lai to collude with foreign powers.

Chan, Lam, Fung, and Yeung also fell victim to NSL charges, accused of conspiring with Cheung, Law, Lai, and the panies by asking external forces to impose sanctions on mainland China or Hong Kong officials and governments.

With Chief Magistrate Peter Law presiding, the prosecution will continue its efforts to push for all cases to be transferred to the Court of First Instance, mittal proceedings will be handled. The highest penalty carried out by cases tried at the High Court is a life sentence.

Once the defendant’s court proceedings were dealt with on the Oct. 12 court date, they were dismissed by Magistrate Law, and the court began to address the absences of representatives from the three panies.

The panies, although not providing any representatives, were said to “still exist” by the prosecution and thus will be asked to attend another court date, also set for Dec 28.

Apple Daily shut its doors after 500 Hong Kong police officers raided its headquarters and froze its assets on June 17. Last month, Apple Daily’s pany, Next Digital Media Company, was forcibly liquidated after its board of directors and executives either were arrested for violating the NSL or quit amid pressure from and fear of it.

Authorities continue to deny any erosion of human rights in Hong Kong and instead defend the arrests, saying articles from Apple Daily crossed a line and endangered national security, although never specifying which ones or how they did so.

In the time Jimmy Lai has spent in prison, over 150 people have been arrested under the National Security Law and both of his panies were folded.In addition, theHong Kong government hasfurther abandoned the “One Country, Two Systems” principle laid out in1997, which wasintended to maintain the country’s relativeeconomic and administrative independence from China.The Beijing-imposed NSL isproving toplay anintegral role in the government’s pursuit of absolute control over its citizenry.

Comments
Welcome to mreligion comments! Please keep conversations courteous and on-topic. To fosterproductive and respectful conversations, you may see comments from our Community Managers.
Sign up to post
Sort by
Show More Comments
RELIGION & LIBERTY ONLINE
Something Vastly More Powerful Than Evil
In his latest Forbes column, Rev. Robert A. Sirico explains why despite the tragedy in Newton we can speak of joy during this Christmas season: When we ask our bewilderedwhy? –we are not looking for data points.Even less should we offer glib responses in the face of this shattering loss – this modern-day slaughter of the innocents. We are, instead, seeking themeaningin the face of thismysterium iniquitatis.The meaning we seek is not so much the significance of evil as the...
Economics is Too Important to be Left to Economists
I rather like Serene Jones’ piece in Huffington Post, “Economists and Innkeepers.” Jones got some things right. She knows that Christian Scripture teaches many economic lessons, like subsidiarity and stewardship (although she doesn’t use those terms.) She says, “Economic theory is replete with theological and moral assumptions about human nature and society” and that is correct. As Istituto Acton’s Kishore Jayabalan reminds us, Things like the rule of law, a tradition of equality for the law, which should cut down...
When I Grow Up
“What do you want to be when you grow up?” That’s mon question asked of children the world over. ChildFund International has put out their global survey of children for 2012, and that’s one of the questions they asked, with some intriguing results. When asked, “If you could grow up to be anything you wanted, what would you be?” there were some rather remarkable disparities between the answers of children in the developed and the developing world. Kids in the...
How Should Christians View Property?
Étienne Cabet, a French philosopher and founder of a utopian socialist movement, once said: “Communism is Christianity.” The concept of property has existed longer than Western Civilization; trying to understand what property is and who can claim it has been an important issue for centuries. But, what is the Christian view of private property and ownership? Cabet, and others who believe that Christianity supports the concept munism or socialism, base their opinion on one particular passage of Scripture. In Acts:...
Why Christians in Business Should Read Poetry
Writing for the Harvard Business Review, my friend (and coauthor) John Coleman argues that business professionals can benefit from reading poetry. While his article is not directed at people of faith, I think his claims are particularly relevant to Christians in the business world: Poetry can also help users develop a more acute sense of empathy. In the poem “Celestial Music,” for example, Louise Glück explores her feelings on heaven and mortality by seeing the issue through the eyes of...
Court: Justice Dept. Can’t Just Say ‘Trust Us, Changes Are Coming’
“There is no, ‘Trust us, changes ing’ clause in the Constitution,” wrote Judge Brian Cogan in his ruling issued two weeks ago against a Justice Department motion to dismiss the Archdiocese of New York’s lawsuit against the HHS mandate. “To the contrary, the Bill of Rights itself, and the First Amendment in particular, reflect a degree of skepticism towards governmental self-restraint and self-correction.” More federal judges ing to the same conclusion. Earlier this week a federal appeals court in Washington,...
Free Kindle Ebook: ‘A Field Guide to the Hero’s Journey’
Acton is offering a free Christmas gift: a free Kindle download of the new book, A Field Guide to the Hero’s Journey. The book, co-authored by Jeff Sandefer and Rev. Robert Sirico, has been called a “the modern ‘how-to’ for entrepreneurs working on plishing big things” by Andreas Widmer, and is a terrific book not only for adults but for young people. You can also listen to the authors discussing their collaboration on this book on this Radio Free Acton...
Should We Tax Volunteer Work for Charities?
During the debate about how to resolve the fiscal cliff crisis, lawmakers on both sides have considered reducing the charitable tax deduction. That strikes many people as the wrong approach (especially those of us who work for non-profits!) even though we may not be able to explain why it’s such a bad idea. Fortunately, John Carney has provided a superb explanation for why reducing or removing this deduction is counterproductive. For instance, changing the charitable deduction as Carney notes, has...
Social Engineering Makes For Poor Economic Policy
Writing over at The Atlantic, American Enterprise Institute scholar Christina Hoff Sommers shares the unsettling story of what a growing number of Swedish activist groups and political factions are attempting to do to “traditional” gender roles. Is it discriminatory and degrading for toy catalogs to show girls playing with tea sets and boys with Nerf guns? A Swedish regulatory group says yes. The Reklamombudsmannen (RO) has reprimanded Top-Toy, a licensee of Toys”R”Us and one of the largest panies in Northern...
Conservation and Entrepreneurial Environmentalism
I found this profile of Mark Tercek, the former Goldman Sachs managing director who was tapped to head the Nature Conservancy, raises some profound issues concerning the relationship between economics and the environment: Tercek, 55, e to the Conservancy to fight financial brush fires. With the help of his board and the input of the Conservancy’s 600 scientists, he wants to remake the face of the American and global environmental movements. He has no quarrel with the current model—largely built...
Related Classification
Copyright 2023-2025 - www.mreligion.com All Rights Reserved