Landmark national security trial opens in Hong Kong for prominent activist publisher Jimmy Lai

By KANIS LEUNG
Associated Press

HONG KONG (AP) — A landmark national security trial has opened in Hong Kong for prominent activist publisher Jimmy Lai. He faces a possible life sentence if convicted under a law imposed by Beijing to crush dissidents. The 76-year-old Lai was arrested in August 2020 during a crackdown on the city’s pro-democracy movement under the sweeping national security law enacted following huge protests four years ago. Lai is charged with colluding with foreign forces to endanger national security. The closely watched trial that opened Monday is tied to the now-shuttered pro-democracy newspaper Apple Daily that Lai founded. It is widely viewed as a trial of press freedom and a test for judicial independence in the former British colony, which returned to Chinese rule in 1997.