Jimmy Lai trial: Trump has vowed to free the media mogul. A Hong Kong court docket is about to determine the media mogul’s destiny

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Hong Kong —

Days earlier than successful his second presidential time period, Donald Trump made a daring promise: if he returned to the White Home, he would free a pugnacious, self-made billionaire from a Hong Kong jail.

“100% I’ll get him out. He’ll be straightforward to get out,” Trump declared in a podcast interview in October, radiating his trademark confidence.

Practically ten months later, that tycoon Jimmy Lai – a pro-democracy firebrand and chronic thorn in Beijing’s facet – stays behind bars.

The 77-year-old media mogul has spent greater than 1,600 days in a maximum-security jail, a lot of it in solitary confinement, staring down the potential of spending the remainder of his life there.

Lai, the outspoken founding father of the now-shuttered Apple Each day – a fiercely pro-democracy tabloid newspaper identified for years of blistering broadsides in opposition to the Chinese language Communist celebration until its forced closure – has change into an emblem of Beijing’s sweeping nationwide safety crackdown on the once-freewheeling monetary hub.

In his landmark trial, Lai stands accused of two counts of colluding with overseas forces – against the law punishable by life in jail beneath the 2020 nationwide safety regulation imposed by Beijing – and a separate sedition cost. He has pleaded not responsible to all expenses.

On Thursday, a Hong Kong court docket was set to start listening to closing arguments from each protection and prosecutors, paving the way in which for a verdict that may determine Lai’s destiny – and take a look at Trump’s resolve to make good on his pledge whereas making an attempt to clinch a commerce cope with Chinese language chief Xi Jinping. Nevertheless the primary day of closing arguments – that are anticipated to final a number of days – was cancelled as a serious rainstorm lashed the town.

Within the October interview, Trump responded “100% sure” when requested by podcast host Hugh Hewitt whether or not he would communicate to Xi to get Lai in a foreign country if he gained the election.

Then, as president, Trump pledged to lift Lai’s case as a part of US commerce talks with China.

“I believe speaking about Jimmy Lai is an excellent concept,” he instructed Hewitt in a subsequent radio interview in Could, simply days earlier than officers met in Geneva for the primary spherical of talks. “We’ll put it down, and we’ll put it down as a part of the negotiation.”

Two people who find themselves near Lai and have been campaigning for his launch mentioned they have been instructed that US officers did deliver up Lai’s case with their Chinese language counterparts throughout the talks.

“We perceive it was informally introduced up at commerce talks, however we don’t know the context of it,” mentioned Lai’s high aide Mark Simon, referring to the negotiations in Geneva.

Mark Clifford, president of the Washington-based Committee for Freedom in Hong Kong Basis, mentioned that earlier than commerce negotiators met once more in London in June, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent “had it as a mission” from Trump to make sure that Lai’s launch was a part of the talks.

“I’m instructed that Bessent was tasked by the President and made it as a part of his mission,” mentioned Clifford, who has been lobbying the US Congress for Lai’s launch. “Going into these talks, like instantly earlier than these talks, Bessent instructed those who he was tasked by Trump with getting Jimmy out.”

CNN has reached out to the Treasury Division for remark. Responding to CNN’s request for remark, White Home Deputy Press Secretary Anna Kelly mentioned: “As President Trump mentioned, Jimmy Lai must be launched, and he desires to see that occur.”

China’s International Affairs Ministry and Commerce Ministry didn't reply to requests for remark.

Liu Pengyu, a spokesperson for the Chinese language Embassy in Washington, mentioned he was not conscious of the “particular particulars” when requested about whether or not Lai’s case was introduced up within the commerce talks.

“We strongly oppose exterior forces utilizing judicial instances as a pretext to intervene in China’s inside affairs or to smear and undermine Hong Kong’s rule of regulation,” Liu added.

The Hong Kong authorities has additionally stood agency, urging “any exterior forces” – with out mentioning the US or Trump – to right away cease interfering within the metropolis’s inside affairs and judicial course of.

“Any try by any nation, group, or particular person to intervene with the judicial proceedings within the Hong Kong Particular Administrative Area by the use of political energy, thereby leading to a defendant not with the ability to have a good trial that one ought to obtain, is a reprehensible act undermining the rule of regulation of Hong Kong and must be condemned,” the town’s Safety Bureau mentioned in an announcement.

Lai’s Thursday court docket listening to comes simply days after Trump prolonged a commerce truce with China, giving each side one other 90 days to attempt to settle their commerce and tech disputes.

In current weeks, Trump has eased his confrontational stance towards Beijing, and has spoken enthusiastically about visiting China at Xi’s invitation within the “not too distant future” if a deal is reached.

As a part of that push, he has rolled again sure export controls on China – together with reversing a ban on gross sales of Nvidia’s H20 chips. This week, he opened the door to sending China extra superior AI chips.

Specialists on US-China relations say it stays unclear whether or not Trump can ship on his pledge to free Lai, a China-born British nationwide, citing his transactional type and unpredictable coverage shifts.

“Jimmy Lai is British, not American. Given the excessive profile of his case, I doubt that China will probably be prepared to make a deal,” mentioned Yun Solar, director of the China program on the Stimson Heart suppose tank in Washington.

“However the commerce talks are greater precedence for Beijing. If Trump prioritizes Jimmy Lai’s launch, Beijing will have the ability to negotiate though all of it is dependent upon the phrases.”

Jean-Pierre Cabestan, a senior researcher on the Asia Centre suppose tank in Paris, mentioned the uncertainty cuts each methods.

“How a lot stress Trump will placed on Xi to succeed in such a deal? Laborious to say as a result of the US administration has so many different priorities forward of Jimmy Lai,” he mentioned. “However the massive query is whether or not Xi will settle for such a quid professional quo?”

However Lai’s household and supporters stay hopeful.

“We’re extremely grateful that the president is aware of about my father’s case and has mentioned that he'll free him,” mentioned Sebastien Lai, Jimmy Lai’s son. “The president has an incredible monitor document in liberating prisoners around the globe. So listening to this provides our household lots of hope.”

Others be aware the willingness of Trump administration officers to discussing Lai’s case, in addition to his broad backing in Washington and throughout the Catholic group.

“I do know folks within the Trump administration. We discuss it. They bring about it up. The Catholic group has reached out to the White Home and made their voice identified. Varied senators have reached out,” mentioned Simon, the Lai aide.

Lai’s fortunes, each private and monetary, are inextricably tied to the transformation of Hong Kong.

Born in mainland China, he arrived within the British-ruled metropolis within the backside of a fishing boat at age 12 and grime poor. He labored his method up the manufacturing unit flooring of a textile firm to change into a clothes tycoon – a rags-to-riches story that echoed Hong Kong’s personal rise as a bustling industrial hub.

However China’s lethal 1989 crackdown on pupil protesters in Tiananmen Sq. politicized Lai and created one thing of a rarity in Hong Kong: a rich tycoon prepared to brazenly criticize Beijing’s leaders. He moved out of the clothes enterprise and selected a brand new function – media baron.

Lai based Apple Each day in 1995, two years earlier than Hong Kong was handed over to China. The outspoken writer and his newspaper have been on the forefront of the town’s pro-democracy motion.

A identified vocal supporter of Trump and a religious Catholic, Lai traveled to Washington on the peak of the 2019 protests, the place he met with then Vice President Mike Pence and different US politicians to debate the political state of affairs within the metropolis.

The media mogul had lengthy held a conviction that Trump and the US authorities mustn't draw back from supporting Hong Kong’s civil liberties, that are key for the town’s standing as a conduit between China and worldwide markets.

“Mr. President, you’re the one one who can save us,” Lai mentioned in an interview with CNN in 2020 weeks earlier than he was arrested. “Should you save us, you possibly can cease China’s aggressions. It's also possible to save the world.”

Prosecutors have argued that Lai’s actions amounted to lobbying for sanctions in opposition to Beijing and Hong Kong, an act prohibited beneath the nationwide safety regulation that was imposed following 2019’s big and typically violent pro-democracy protests and has reworked the town. Lai’s attorneys have countered that Lai had stopped these acts after the nationwide safety regulation got here into impact on June 30, 2020.

Taking the stand in his personal protection in November, Lai mentioned he had by no means spoken with Trump. “I don’t suppose he knew me. I believe his aides knew me and briefed him about me,” he mentioned.

In Washington, efforts to name for Lai’s launch have continued via Joe Biden’s presidency and into Trump’s second time period.

In March, a bipartisan group of US Home representatives introduced a invoice to rename the road in entrance of the Hong Kong Financial and Commerce Workplace in Washington as “1 Jimmy Lai Method.” That very same month, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio – a former high China hawk within the Senate – mentioned in an interview that getting Lai out of jail was a “precedence.”

“We’ve raised it in each attainable kind they usually know that it’s vital to us,” Rubio mentioned, referring to Chinese language officers. “It’s not one thing we’ve forgotten about and that it stays a precedence, and I believe different international locations around the globe are making the identical level as effectively to the Chinese language.”

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer introduced up the case of Lai in his first assembly with Xi, on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Brazil in November 2024.

British International Secretary David Lammy has additionally urged Lai’s launch, calling his imprisonment “merciless and strange punishment” and describing the case as “a precedence for the UK authorities” — remarks that drew a sharp rebuke from Beijing.

To this point all of Hong Kong’s nationwide safety trials have been heard by a panel of specifically chosen judges, not juries – a departure from the town’s widespread regulation custom. The closing arguments are anticipated to take a number of days and it might be weeks, and even months, earlier than the judges render their verdict.

Individuals campaigning for Lai’s launch argue that given his previous age and frail well being, it’ll be extra bother for Beijing and Hong Kong authorities to maintain him in jail than set him free.

“If he dies in jail, he’s going to be bother without end. He’ll be a martyr. He’ll be an emblem of resistance. He’ll be an emblem of the cruelty of the Chinese language Communist regime. And why would (Beijing) need that?” mentioned Clifford, who wrote a biography of Lai titled “The Troublemaker.”

Simon, the highest aide, mentioned Lai needs to be convicted first, earlier than issues can begin transferring ahead to get him out of jail.

Whereas Washington has used diplomacy to safe the discharge of political prisoners in mainland China up to now, such interventions can be uncommon — if not unprecedented — in Hong Kong, which has its personal separate authorized system, consultants say.

Paul Harris, former chairman of Hong Kong’s Bar Affiliation, mentioned the truth that Lai is in Hong Kong doesn't create an impediment to his launch. Beneath Hong Kong’s mini-constitution, the Fundamental Legislation, the chief government has the ability – and the responsibility – in acceptable instances to pardon convicted prisoners or commute their sentences, he defined.

“In order that energy is there, and it’s a matter for the Chief Government’s choice whether or not he desires to make use of it, and one can safely assume that if the President of China desires him to make use of it, he'll use it,” Harris mentioned, referencing Xi.

“Jimmy Lai is within the second half of his 70s. He has sure well being issues. It's completely per the rule of regulation, because it has at all times operated, to launch aged prisoners with well being issues. And so if the need is there, it may be completed.”

However for supporters of Lai, the marketing campaign to free him is a race in opposition to time.

Sebastien Lai mentioned he’s deeply involved about his father’s deteriorating well being.

“He’s 77 this 12 months, turning 78 on the finish of the 12 months, any kind of incarceration is extremely worrying for his well being, by no means thoughts the solitary confinement and the diabetes,” he mentioned, calling his father’s extended solitary confinement “a type of torture.”

“And throughout the summer time, Hong Kong goes as much as 30, nearly 40 levels, and he’s in a little bit concrete cell, so he bakes in there. We’re extremely frightened about him.”

The Hong Kong authorities mentioned it strongly condemns what it calls “deceptive statements” in regards to the therapy of Jimmy Lai in custody.

“The remarks by Sebastien Lai concerning Lai Chee-ying’s solitary confinement are fully fact-twisting, reflecting a malicious intention to smear and assault the HKSAR Authorities,” it mentioned in an announcement, including Lai had requested his removing from normal jail inhabitants.

Sebastien Lai mentioned his concern for his father can be layered with delight.

“I’m very proud that somebody like my father has determined to do what he did – campaigning for democracy for the final 30 years, staying in Hong Kong when it mattered, when the nationwide safety regulation was coming down…and nearly performing like a lightning rod.”

“On a private degree, it’s devastating. However on a grander, historic degree, it’s vital to maintain watch.”

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Jimmy Lai trial: Trump has vowed to free the media mogul. A Hong Kong court docket is about to determine the media mogul’s destiny

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