HONG KONG, Dec 19 ― The long-awaited trial of Hong Kong's media tycoon Jimmy Lai began yesterday morning, with a significant police presence deployed outside the courthouse.

Dozens of people queued up for the hearing; some even came before dawn. They were here to see the 76-year-old defendant Lai who was arrested in August 2020 under the sweeping national security law imposed on Hong Kong by Beijing in the same year.

The trial, initially scheduled to start more than a year ago, has faced several postponements.

As the founder of Apple Daily — a popular news outlet critical of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) — Lai was charged with conspiring to collude with foreign forces and publish seditious material.

Lai's son Sebastien, who has been traveling the world to seek international support, regards the trial as “a show” for Beijing to silence dissidents. “This is clearly a means to put the whole of Hong Kong in fear, so that you will no longer speak out for democracy and be afraid of criticising the government,” he told DW.

Health fears

The closely watched trial was expected to begin without a jury and may last up to 80 days, with Lai facing a maximum penalty of life in prison.

Given Lai's advanced age, even short sentences of imprisonment can pose great risk to his health conditions. Sebastien told DW: “I am worried that my dad will pass away (in prison).”

Lai has remained behind bars for over three years, after his request for bail was denied and the initial plan to hire a British lawyer, Timothy Owen, also failed after Beijing's intervention.

In late 2021, he received a 13-month jail term for charges of involvement in a banned vigil for the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre. Last year on a separate count, he was found guilty of fraud and sentenced to five years and nine months in prison.

“The [Chinese] government has tried every effort to keep him out of the public scene,” Eric Lai, a Hong Kong research fellow at Georgetown Center for Asian Law (GCAL), told DW.

The media mogul was known to be one of the CCP's most outspoken critics. His newspaper Apple Daily — before being raided by the police and subsequently shut down in 2021 — was vocal about the territory's pro-democracy movement.

His arrest is widely considered part of the sweeping crackdown on press freedom and civil liberties in Hong Kong, following the 2019 pro-democracy protests sparked by the government's decision to introduce a bill to facilitate extradition of criminal suspects to mainland China.

China anxious about global attention

Leading up to the trial, voices demanding the immediate release of Lai have grown stronger, from human rights groups to foreign governments.

Just one day before the trial, the United Kingdom and the United States both urged the Chinese authorities to end their prosecution and release Jimmy Lai. Earlier, the Canadian parliament also released a “unanimous” motion calling for his release, following a similar demand made by the European Parliament.

Of all the international support, the UK's statement is considered particularly critical as Lai holds British citizenship. Last week, Sabastien met with the country's Foreign Secretary David Cameron, who promised that London would “stand by Jimmy Lai and the people of HK,” according to an official post on X, formerly known as Twitter.

In response, the Chinese embassy strongly criticised the meeting, claiming it had “further exposed Jimmy Lai's long-term collusion with the UK side.”

The significant public attention on the case appears to have made the Chinese authorities uneasy, analyst Eric Lai said.

On Friday, a new bounty list of five overseas activists of violating the national security law was released. At the same time, the Hong Kong Security Bureau announced guidelines of strict inspections on visitors entering the court for Lai's trial, including X-ray checks.

Indicating the bounty list can be a way to divert international attention, the GCAL's Lai said: “All these tactics by the government reflect they are very anxious [about] Jimmy Lai's popularity.”

What to expect from the high-profile trial?

Lai's trial, the first where a defendant pleads not guilty for colluding with foreign forces, is believed to be an example of how the national security law has fundamentally changed the criminal proceedings.

In addition to being denied access to an overseas lawyer and bail, Lai will also face judges handpicked by John Lee, the chief executive of Hong Kong. And the court will include tainted witnesses, who are defendants themselves and have been suffering from pre-trial detention for more than two years.

“This will, of course, create a high level of stress on them [witnesses],” the GCAL's Lai said, highlighting that these conditions could make a trial “more unfair than before.”

Since Lai's case is considered “highly politicised,” the Hong Kong researcher suggested it would be worth noting whether the authorities from the territory or Beijing would intervene in the trial, as they have done before, by interpreting basic laws in court.

Sebastien 'proud' of his father

Expecting to celebrate Christmas while his father is still on trial, Sebastien feels “torn” about Lai's decision to remain in Hong Kong before his arrest. “He obviously loves Hong Kong,” Sebastien told DW. “He wants to stand beside Hong Kong people and defend freedom together with journalists.”

“I am incredibly proud that he's my father,” Sebastien added. “I will always keep campaigning for him.” ― DW