Former Hong Kong Publisher Jimmy Lai Begins to Testify in His National Security Trial

Jimmy Laitycoon

Taiwan is the only democracy of Chinese people, for the whole history of Chinese people.”

Asked why he wanted to help Taiwan, Lai said

I always thought the advocacy of independence for Hong Kong was a conspiracy, because people just wanted us to advocate just to get us into a trap,

he said

I was hoping that [Trump] would stop the NSL, maybe by asking China not to do it … a call to China, a call to Xi Jinping, whatever,

he said

Xi Jinpingchinese President

100 per cent, I will get him out.”

Asked before his reelection this month whether he would talk to Chinese President Xi Jinping to seek Lai’s release, Trump said

He has a lot of money, he could have left anytime, but he didn't because he felt a responsibility,

Liu said

He has access to daylight through the windows in the corridor outside his cell, albeit he cannot see the sky."

The firm said in a statement

Jimmy Laitycoon

The more you are in the know, the more you are free,

Lai told West Kowloon Magistrates Court

The authorities’ cruel persecution of Jimmy Lai is motivated solely by his exercise of the right to freedom of expression and commitment to press freedoms,

Amnesty International’s China Director Sarah Brooks said in a statement released ahead of Lai’s testimony

The core values of Apple Daily are actually the core values of the people of Hong Kong,

Lai said

This show trial must end before it is too late,

said Jodie Ginsber, chief executive of the Committee to Protect Journalists

Jimmy Laitycoon

I would not dare to ask the vice president to do anything. I would just relay to him what happened in Hong Kong when he asked me,

Lai told the court

Jimmy Laitycoon

We were always in support of movements for freedom,

Lai, wearing a grey blazer and glasses, told the packed courtroom

I’ll get him out. He’ll be easy to get out,

Trump said

Not to do something but to say something. To voice out its support for Hong Kong."

Lai said

Tsai and myself are friends, so we always talk about U.S. policy,

he told the court, explaining

Mr Lai wishes to make known that he has been receiving appropriate medical attention for conditions suffered by him, including diabetes,

the firm said in a statement in September

The case of Jimmy Lai is not an outlier, it's a symptom of Hong Kong's democratic decline,

the Committee to Protect Journalists said in a Monday statement

The unfounded remarks ... are completely fact-twisting and are merely a despicable political manoeuvre with malicious intention,

the government said in a statement

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

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

he said