A judge presiding over Jimmy Lai’s national security case has warned the prosecution not to make unfounded allegations against the media mogul’s lawyers, after a prosecutor suggested that the defence had deliberately withheld questions related to Apple Daily staff’s messaging records.
The judges on Monday handled an application from the defence to re-summon Cheung Kim-hung, the former CEO of Apple Daily’s parent company Next Digital, to the witness stand.
Last week, Lai’s barrister Robert Pang said the defence wished to ask Cheung about messages on Slack, a workplace messaging app that Apple Daily staff used. Earlier in the trial, Cheung himself testified that staff raised topics in a Slack channel ahead of “lunchbox meetings,” in which Lai discussed the newspaper’s editorial direction with senior executives.
Pang said the defence had only obtained the screenshots of the Slack messages after Cheung finished his testimony in early February.
76-year-old Lai is on trial for two counts of taking part in a “conspiracy to collude with foreign forces” under the security legislation, and also for conspiring to publish “seditious” materials under a colonial-era law. The self-made millionaire’s media outlet, which was forced to close in June 2021 after senior staff were arrested, faces the same charges. Apple Daily’s newsroom was raided twice, and its assets were frozen.
One of Lai’s solicitors, Johnny Ho, took to the witness stand on Monday to answer government prosecutor Anthony Chau’s questions about the defence team’s handling of the Slack records.
Chau suggested Ho had “deliberately refrained” from seeking out the Slack records earlier, and that there had been “ample opportunity” for the legal team to have done so.
Alex Lee, one of the three national security judges presiding over the case, warned Chau against making unfounded allegations.
“It’s one thing to say there are earlier opportunities for enquiries [to obtain the records] to be made; another to say there was deliberate [effort] to delay investigation,” Lee said.
“It’s a matter of fairness,” he added. “You should not make wild allegations unless you have [the] proper foundation.”
Earlier on during Monday’s cross-examination, Ho agreed with Chau that the topic of Slack was first raised during the trial in late January, when Pang asked him about the app. He said the defence then asked the prosecution whether they had the Slack records, and the prosecution said no.
The defence obtained the Slack records in late February through the tycoon’s daughter Claire Lai, a month after the messaging app was mentioned in the trial. Getting those records was “not easy,” Ho added.
The solicitor confirmed that, having worked on Lai’s case since his arrest in August 2020, he was familiar with the case details and had read witness statements.
Ho also agreed with Chau that he knew by late November or December last year that discussions in the lunchbox meetings were a “central part of the prosecution.” However, he said he had not seen the meeting minutes.
Ho said he “did not quite agree” with Chau’s suggestion that there had been “ample opportunity for the defence team to carry out their own enquiries and investigation” into the Slack records, as the app was only mentioned in the trial in late January.
75th day of trial
Monday marked the 75th day of Lai’s high-profile national security trial – he faces up to life in prison if found guilty.
According to the prosecution’s case, Lai had lobbied for foreign governments to impose sanctions on Hong Kong and mainland Chinese officials after anti-extradition protests began in the city in 2019.
The trial began in December. Cheung, an Apple Daily executive, was the first prosecution witness to testify against Lai, taking the stand for 12 days from mid-January.
Cheung – and five other Apple Daily senior staff – pleaded guilty to one count of conspiring to collude with foreign forces in November 2022 and are awaiting sentencing, which will take place after Lai’s trial ends and the judges hand down a verdict.
Including Cheung, the trial has heard the testimonies of six prosecution witnesses. Ex-Apple Daily executive Chan Pui-man and ex-Apple Daily writer Yeung Ching-ki – who were also charged in the case – testified after Cheung.
Activists Andy Li and Chan Tsz-wah, charged alongside Lai in his second foreign collusion offence, then took the witness stand. They have also pleaded guilty and agreed to testify against Lai.
Royston Chow, the former chief financial officer of Apple Daily’s parent company Next Digital, completed his testimony last Friday morning.
Chow was arrested under the national security law in June 2021 alongside Lai and other Apple Daily executives, but was granted immunity in exchange for testifying against the tycoon in the present trial and in a separate fraud case.
Beijing imposed a national security law in Hong Kong in June 2020 after months-long protests and unrest against a controversial extradition bill. The legislation criminalises secession, subversion, foreign collusion and terrorism.
The trial was adjourned to Tuesday afternoon.
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