Jimmy Lai's case prosecution completes closing argument
發佈日期: 2025-08-20 23:28
TVB News
The prosecution today completed their closing argument in the national security trial of former media tycoon Jimmy Lai.
The national security trial of Jimmy Lai resumed at West Kowloon Law Courts on Wednesday morning. Lai is accused of crimes including conspiracy with foreign powers and publishing seditious publications.
On the third day of his closing argument, the lawyer for the prosecution Anthony Chau said Lai continued to request other conspirators to continue lobbying internationally even after the implementation of national security law.
Chau said while Lai had admitted that Apple Daily was a newspaper that was against the Chinese Communist Party and anti-government, the former media tycoon also described the newspaper as "the neutral defender of Hong Kong's core values," trying to mix his own views with the society's views.
Chau said such an attempt is clearly an act of endangering national security.
The prosecution concluded the case has offered strong evidence that Lai took part in conspiracy as the "mastermind."
Lai's defence then started their closing argument.
The defence said some of the 161 seditious articles, which the prosecution had accused Lai of publishing through Apple Daily, were factual reports or reports of people's opinions.
The defence said the interpretation of the relevant articles can come in multiple forms, and the threshold for a guilty verdict "beyond reasonable doubt" has not been reached.
Judge Esther Toh said this is not a numbers game and that the court does not need to accept or rule all the articles are seditious.
The defence hoped Toh can reread the 161 articles. Toh said she had already used a "microscope" to read the articles in the past year.
The defence's closing argument will continue on Thursday.
