#FreeJimmyLai: As Hong Kong publisher is set to testify in landmark trial, RSF raises alarm over his prolonged detention
As the landmark national security trial of Hong Kong publisher Jimmy Lai is entering a crucial phase, with the Apple Daily founder set to take the stand to testify, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) raises alarm over his prolonged detention in solitary confinement and calls again for his immediate release.
On 20 November, Jimmy Lai’s national security trial is set to resume in Hong Kong, after being adjourned for nearly four months. The founder of Apple Daily, and laureate of the 2020 RSF Press Freedom Prize is expected to take the stand himself to give testimony for the first time in this trial, which started in December 2023. Lai faces two charges under the National Security Law (NSL), for which he could be sentenced to life imprisonment.
Four years in solitary confinement have taken a physical toll on the 76 year-old British citizen, who has diabetes and whose health has declined significantly in detention. Last week, the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention found that Jimmy Lai is unlawfully and arbitrarily detained and called for his immediate release. Jimmy Lai has already been sentenced to five years and nine months in prison on trumped-up fraud charges and has served a 20-month sentence for his participation in “unauthorised” pro-democracy protests in 2019 and 2020.
“All eyes are on Hong Kong as Jimmy Lai takes the stand for the first time in the ludicrous national security case against him, a full 11 months after it started and nearly four years since his detention began on other spurious charges. The Hong Kong authorities’ tactics are clear: to delay and obfuscate, and hope the world will forget about Jimmy Lai. But we will not forget, and we must continue to fight for his release and for the values of press freedom that he has stood for his entire life. What happens to Jimmy Lai matters deeply for Hong Kong but also for journalism and press freedom around the world.
Jimmy Lai’s trial has been marred from the start by irregularities and due process violations. These proceedings, held without a jury and scheduled to last for 80 days, have already taken more than 92 days in court due to constant delays. The prosecution also resorted to testimony from a “witness” who was reportedly tortured and is believed to be forcibly held in a psychiatric institution.
As supposed evidence, prosecutors cited over 150 Apple Daily articles as examples of “seditious publications” and named several human rights defenders, with whom Lai had been in touch in past years, as “co-conspirators” in colluding with foreign forces. During the last hearing on 24 July, the three judges ruled that all charges against Lai were substantiated.
Lai has worked over the past 30 years to uphold the values of press freedom. In 1995, he launched the newspaper Apple Daily, one of the last mainstream titles openly critical of the Beijing regime, and became a leading outlet in Hong Kong’s vigorous media landscape.
In December 2023, an RSF delegation traveled to Hong Kong to observe the opening of his trial, joining foreign diplomats and Lai’s family members in court. On 10 April 2024, ahead of another hearing in Jimmy Lai’s ongoing trial, RSF’s representative Aleksandra Bielakowska was detained and questioned at Hong Kong's international airport before being deported from the territory. On 25 April, the European Parliament adopted a resolution denouncing the Hong Kong authorities’ “obstructions to trial monitoring.”
Press freedom in free fall
Over the past four years, the NSL has become a tool for the Chinese government to target journalists and press freedom defenders in Hong Kong. Lai, along with six senior staff members of Apple Daily, has been prosecuted under the law, while the newspaper itself was forced to shut down in 2021 — an act widely regarded as the death knell for press freedom in the city.
Hong Kong has fallen dramatically in RSF's World Press Freedom Index, now ranked 135th out of 180 countries and territories surveyed, compared to 18th two decades prior. China, ranked 172nd, remains the world’s largest jailer of journalists, with at least 123 currently detained, including 11 in Hong Kong.
