(National Catholic Reporter. Osv news).
Catholic activist Jimmy Lai’s trial on charges of violating a Chinese-imposed national security law is nearing the 100-day mark. He is the highest-profile Hong Kong resident to be tried under the law, and his case is considered a landmark case. The trial of the 76-year-old pro-democracy advocate was suspended for a day June 3 after Lai’s lawyers said he was not feeling well. They told the judge that Lai, who is being held in Hong Kong’s Stanley Prison, had seen a doctor the previous night and had been prescribed painkillers. The trial resumed June 4, with one judge telling Lai he could notify the court if he felt unwell again. Lai’s son, Sebastien, has said his father suffers from diabetes and was diagnosed with high blood pressure while in prison in 2021. For decades Lai, who founded the now-defunct pro-democracy Apple Daily, campaigned for freedom of the press and freedom of expression in Hong Kong, which was designated a Special Administrative Region of China in 1997, when British rule ended after more than 150 years. Hong Kong’s Basic Law was supposed to allow the region “to exercise a high degree of autonomy and enjoy executive, legislative and independent judicial power, including that of final adjudication.”