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The judges overseeing the national security trial of Hong Kong media tycoon Jimmy Lai Chee-ying have postponed their decision on whether to dismiss a sedition charge until Friday.
The adjournment comes after Lai’s legal team presented additional arguments on Tuesday, supporting their application to have the conspiracy charge—relating to 161 allegedly seditious publications by the now-defunct Apple Daily tabloid—dismissed on the grounds that it was filed after the prescribed time limit.
During the trial’s first day on Monday, counsel for the 76-year-old tycoon proposed an interpretation of colonial-era legislation, suggesting that the sedition charge against Lai should have been filed by October 2019, six months after his first alleged breach of the 1938 law. a public service
The ruling could prompt the prosecution to revise their pending opening speech and reconsider how they lay out their allegations in the next stages of the 80-day trial.
The ongoing court debate has revolved around how to establish the deadline for filing a sedition complaint.
Jimmy Lai is currently facing three conspiracy charges, including sedition and collusion with foreign forces. These charges allege that he played a role in drawing international sanctions against authorities and inciting public hatred during the 2019 anti-government protests, sparked by a now-withdrawn extradition bill.
The two collusion charges are linked to the national security law imposed by Beijing in 2020, which criminalizes acts of secession, subversion, and terrorism. The sedition charge is specified in the 1938 Sedition Ordinance, later integrated into the Crimes Ordinance in 1972.