Jimmy Lai Pleads ‘Not Guilty’ to Hong Kong Sedition Charges

Jimmy Lai, the jailed Catholic publisher, pled not guilty in Hong Kong Tuesday to charges of conspiracy to produce seditious publications and conspiracy to collude with foreign powers. Lai, who has been incarcerated since December 2020 on a range of “national security” charges, entered the pleas on January 2 in Hong Kong’s West Kowloon Court under heavy police guard. ...The substance of the charges Lai faces is that his newspaper’s coverage of the shifting legal situation in Hong Kong, and the government’s crackdown on freedom of the press and civil liberties, amounts to sedition against the state. He faces life imprisonment if convicted.