Photo/Illutration Police stand guard outside the West Kowloon Magistrates' Courts in Hong Kong, Wednesday, Nov. 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Chan Long Hei)

HONG KONG--Former Hong Kong publisher Jimmy Lai began testifying Wednesday in his landmark national security trial that is widely seen as a measure of press freedom and judicial independence in the Asian financial hub.

Lai entered the court in a grey blazer and a pair of glasses, waving and smiling at his family members, who sat next to the city's Roman Catholic Cardinal Joseph Zen. The Catholic raised the Bible and swore his evidence would be true in court.

Lai, founder of the now-shuttered Apple Daily pro-democracy newspaper, was arrested in 2020 during a crackdown on mass pro-democracy protests that rocked Hong Kong starting in 2019. He is fighting charges of colluding with foreign forces to endanger national security and conspiring with others to issue seditious publications. If convicted, he faces up to life in prison.

Beijing promised to retain the former British colony's civil liberties for 50 years when it returned to Chinese rule in 1997. But critics say that promise has become threadbare under the rubric of maintaining national security.

Authorities have used a Beijing-imposed national security law to prosecute many of the city's leading activists, including Lai and 45 other democracy advocates who were sentenced on Tuesday. Other pro-democracy figures were forced into self-exile or silenced. Dozens of civil society groups have disbanded under the threat of the law.

Beijing and Hong Kong governments insist that the law restored stability to the city following the 2019 protests.

Prosecutors have alleged that Lai requested foreign countries, especially the United States, to take actions against Beijing “under the guise of fighting for freedom and democracy.”

They pointed to Lai’s meetings with former U.S. Vice President Mike Pence, former U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and senior U.S. senators in July 2019 to discuss a now-withdrawn extradition bill that sparked the massive anti-government protests. They allege that Lai sought support from the U.S. in sanctioning mainland Chinese and Hong Kong leaders who cracked down on the movement.

Dozens of people were in line Wednesday morning in the rain to secure a seat in the courtroom, including former Apple Daily reader William Wong who arrived around 6 a.m. Wong, 64, said he wanted to remind Lai that Hong Kongers have not forgotten him.

“I haven't seen him for a few months. I know he will testify himself, so I want to encourage him,” he said.

The American and British governments and a group of independent United Nations human rights experts have called for Lai's release.

Before the U.S. election, President-elect Donald Trump, when asked on a podcast whether he would talk to Chinese President Xi Jinping to seek Lai's release, said “100%, I will get him out.”

Hong Kong leader John Lee said mutual respect is important for the development of trade relations and there should be no interference in local affairs. Beijing also criticized some U.S. lawmakers for supporting Lai.

U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer also raised concerns over Lai's detention to Xi in a meeting during the G20 summit in Brazil.

Hong Kong's security minister Chris Tang on Tuesday maintained the prosecution was based on facts.

Lai's son, Sebastien Lai, said on Friday that his father's treatment in prison is “inhumane.” “My father is now 77 and has spent nearly four years in a maximum-security prison in solitary confinement,” he said in the statement released by Britain-based law firm Doughty Street Chambers.

On the eve of the court hearing, some U.S. lawmakers gathered with the younger Lai in a restaurant near the U.S. Capitol in Washington in a show of support for the media tycoon.

The trial has also drawn criticism from media and right groups. The Committee to Protect Journalists' CEO Jodie Ginsber said “this show trial must end before it is too late."

On Sunday, the Hong Kong government condemned some members of the law firm for what it called spreading misinformation. It said the separation of Lai from other inmates “has been made at his own request” and was approved by prison authorities. It added judges remain independent and partial when handling national security cases.

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