Major prosecution witness can start testifying against ex-boss Jimmy Lai without tycoon’s top defence lawyer present, legal team tells Hong Kong court
- Trial judges have allowed Robert Pang SC, who leads a team of six barristers representing Lai, to take temporary leave to handle a private matter
- Lai’s legal team says the first major witness, former Apple Daily publisher Cheung Kim-hung, can provide testimony for the prosecution before Pang cross-examines him
Discussions about arrangements for the 80-day trial were brought up in court on Tuesday after the presiding judges allowed Robert Pang Yiu-hung SC, who leads a team of six barristers representing Lai, to take temporary leave to handle a private matter.
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Lai’s legal team had earlier suggested the hearing of key evidence in the case be put on hold until Pang’s return but said on Tuesday that the first major witness, former publisher Cheung Kim-hung, could provide testimony for the prosecution before Pang cross-examined him.
Cheung and five other former senior Apple Daily executives are awaiting sentencing after admitting a charge of conspiracy to collude with foreign forces. Cheung, associate publisher Chan Pui-man and editorial writer Yeung Ching-kee have agreed to testify for the prosecution in exchange for reduced sentences.
Steven Kwan Man-wai, for Lai, added that the arrangement might require a brief adjournment of a few days after prosecutors put all their questions to Cheung and until Pang could resume work.
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The prosecution is expected to deliver a separate 35-page statement by a senior police inspector about the findings of a financial investigation into the case.
Apple Daily founder Lai was slapped with two conspiracy charges of collusion with foreign forces under the Beijing-imposed national security law, and a third conspiracy charge by invoking colonial-era sedition legislation.
Three overseas politicians have been named as co-conspirators under one of the collusion charges. They are British politician Luke de Pulford, former Japanese lawmaker Shiori Kanno and US-born British financier Bill Browder.
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Nick Cheung Chi-wai, former director of Apple Daily’s digital platform, and columnist Simon Lee Chao-fu, who had reportedly managed Lai’s now-closed Twitter account, were listed as co-conspirators under the other collusion charge. The pair have not been arrested.
The prosecution earlier alleged Lai, 76, had exercised full control over Apple Daily and given instructions to its senior editorial staff when the tabloid published 161 seditious articles between April 2019 and June 2021, 31 of which were said to have called for foreign sanctions after the national security law took effect in June 2020.
Lai was also said to have financed and orchestrated an international lobbying campaign titled “Fight for Freedom, Stand with Hong Kong” in a bid to convince the United States and her allies to introduce sanctions and trade restrictions, as well as sever agreements with Hong Kong concerning the extradition of fugitives and mutual legal assistance.
