The high-profile national security trial entered its 21st day with the defence continuing its cross-examination of Cheung, who turned witness for the prosecution almost half a year after he was arrested on June 17, 2021.

Cheung was charged the following day alongside Lai with conspiring to collude with foreign forces under the security law. He remained silent during all three interviews with police before the force laid charges on him, the court heard.

He pleaded guilty in November 2022, while Lai denied all charges including that of conspiring to publish “seditious” materials under a colonial-era law.

The police meeting, brought up by Lai’s counsel Robert Pang Yiu-hung SC, took place in Lai Chi Kok Reception Centre, where Cheung had been detained for months, on November 11, 2021.

It was held the day after the High Court handed down a written judgment about Cheung’s bail refusal.

Cheung conceded that a sergeant surnamed Lai visited him to serve him the 10-page ruling in a “lengthy” meeting that lasted almost four hours from 10am.

The following day, the sergeant visited Cheung again, this time with a detective constable, during which the defendant said he wanted to be a prosecution witness, the court heard.

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Justice Alex Lee Wan-tang said: “Police would not have asked the defendant to be a prosecution witness without the clearance of the Department of Justice … Were you invited by police to be a prosecution witness?”

Cheung said “no” firmly, denying the decision was a result of the meeting.

Pang asked: “In such a long period when you were speaking with the sergeant, what did you talk about?”

Cheung replied: “Just about life generally in Lai Chi Kok and the exercises I did there. Nothing special.”

Madam Justice Esther Toh asked if the topic about being a prosecution witness was brought up in the meeting. Cheung said: “It was only after reading the [bail] decision, I began to think that I would like to tell the truth. I did not disclose this idea to police.”

Toh continued: “So you just chatted about life in general to a stranger?” Cheung said: “Yes.”

The defence spent its 11th day challenging Cheung’s testimony, with Pang again bringing up the ex-publisher’s affidavit in which he had said at a staff meeting in May 2021 that the tabloid would continue to “operate legally”.

Cheung told the court he and former colleagues had all along acted on Lai’s decisions. He said after Lai was charged under the Beijing-decreed security legislation in December 2021, some articles deemed “sensitive” were removed with an aim of complying with the law.

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“[But] for Lai’s live chat footage and commentaries, there was no way to take them down. Those were the articles of the boss,” he said. “We were in no position to stop him from publishing the materials.”

According to the affidavit shown in court, Cheung said he had been a “very low-profile individual with no political association” and did not even own a social media account.

Cheung also told the three presiding judges that when he visited Lai in jail in April 2021 to seek instructions on whether to fold Apple Daily, his former boss told him to run the tabloid until it was folded by authorities and just to remove some drawings in Lai’s office.

He also said he was not aware Lai, a month earlier, made inquiries to the board of directors about dissolving subsidiaries of Next Digital.

The trial continues on Friday with former associate Apple Daily publisher Chan Pui-man set to start testifying against Lai.