A verdict for Apple Daily founder Jimmy Lai’s national security trial is expected in October, a Hong Kong court has heard in a separate proceeding over the newspaper’s winding up.
The High Court, which handles liquidation procedures for companies, heard on Monday that a verdict for the jailed media tycoon’s national security trial was expected this October, local media reported.
Judge Linda Chan said on Monday that the winding-up proceeding would take place 35 days after Lai’s verdict is delivered, and adjourned the next hearing to November.
Lai has pleaded not guilty to two conspiracy charges of collusion with foreign forces under the Beijing-imposed national security law, and a third of conspiring to publish “seditious” materials under a colonial-era law. He could be jailed for life if convicted.
Last week, the start date of a national security trial against members of the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China – the now-disbanded group that was once behind the city’s Tiananmen crackdown vigil – was also delayed to November, after judges considered their schedules due to Lai’s case.
Albert Ho, Lee Cheuk-yan and Chow Hang-tung were charged alongside the alliance itself with inciting subversion of state power under the Beijing-imposed national security law. They could be jailed for life if convicted.
The trial was originally set to begin on May 6.
The liquidation request was filed last April by two former employees of the newspaper who urged the court to wind up the company that ceased operations in June 2021 after its senior executives were arrested and later charged under the national security law.
The two former employees, Chan Hon-wing and Yeung Yu-ching, filed a liquidation request in April 2024 to liquidate the company.
The court heard in July last year that more than 580 former employees may be eligible to receive HK$49 million in back pay.
Meanwhile, the court heard on Monday that Apple Daily’s assets are currently frozen under implementation rules stipulated by the Beijing-imposed national security law.
Neither the two ex-employees nor the newspaper objected to the November hearing schedule on Monday.
Corrections:
Correction 12:19pm, 25/2/25: An earlier version of this article mistakenly stated that a liquidation request was filed last July. It was filed in April 2024.
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