HONG KONG (AP) — A Hong Kong court heard final arguments Monday in the landmark national security trial of former pro-democracy newspaper founder Jimmy Lai, who could be sentenced to up to life in prison if he is convicted.
Lai, 77, was arrested in 2020 under a national security law imposed by Beijing following anti-government protests in 2019. He is being tried on charges of colluding with foreign forces to endanger national security and conspiring with others to issue seditious publications.
Lai founded Apple Daily, one of the local media outlets that was most critical of Hong Kong's government. His high-profile case that has stretched nearly 150 days, almost double the original estimate, is widely seen as a trial of press freedom and a test for judicial independence in the Asian financial hub.
It is unclear when a verdict will be delivered.
Prosecutor Anthony Chau said on Monday that Lai was arrested for collusion in August 2020, but he continued to make requests for sanctions, blockades or other hostile activities in the following months.
Chau suggested that the appeals for foreign actions did not only target individuals, but also China, while the foreign collaborations Lai had were long-term and persistent. Chau cited Lai's foreign connections to show what he called Lai's “unwavering intent” to solicit foreign actions.
A prosecution document shown in court argued that the law doesn't prohibit normal international exchanges. But how Lai attempted to draw an analogy of what he did to the cooperation between Hong Kong's prosecuting authority and the International Association of Prosecutors was bewildering.
“It is surprising to see that D1 (Lai) raised freedoms of thought and association as his shield,” it said in the document.
Chau is expected to wrap up his closing statement Tuesday.
Earlier in the trial, prosecutors alleged Lai asked foreign countries, especially the United States, to take actions against Beijing “under the guise of fighting for freedom and democracy.”
On the first day of his testimony, Lai denied he had asked then-Vice President Mike Pence and then-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to take action against Hong Kong and China during the 2019 protests.
When Lai's lawyer questioned him about an Apple Daily report saying he had asked the U.S. government to sanction Beijing and Hong Kong leaders, he said he must have discussed it with Pompeo, as he had no reason to doubt the accuracy of the report by the now-defunct newspaper he founded.
But Lai said he would not have encouraged foreign sanctions after the national security law was enacted on June 30, 2020.
Closing arguments have been delayed twice, first due to the weather then to concerns over Lai's health. On Friday, his lawyer, Robert Pang, said Lai had experienced heart palpitations while in prison. The judges wanted him to secure a heart monitor and medication first.
After Friday’s hearing, the Hong Kong government alleged foreign media outlets had attempted to mislead the public about Lai's medical care. It said a medical examination of Lai found no abnormalities and that the medical care he received in custody was adequate.
When Lai entered the courtroom on Monday, he waved and smiled to those sitting in the public gallery and briefly instructed his legal team in a voice audible to public attendees. He closed his eyes for a while in the morning when the prosecution laid out its legal arguments.
The heart monitor was delivered to Lai and he had no complaints about his health, Chau said.
Lai's yearslong detention in solidarity confinement has drawn concerns from foreign governments and rights groups. U.S. President Donald Trump, before being elected to his second term in November, said he would talk to Chinese leader Xi Jinping to seek Lai's release: “I will get him out.”
In a Fox News radio interview released Aug. 14, Trump denied saying he would save Lai, but rather that he would bring the issue up.
“I’ve already brought it up, and I’m going to do everything I can to save him,” he said.
China has accused Lai of stirring a rise in anti-China sentiments in Hong Kong and said it firmly opposes the interference of other countries in its internal affairs.
Dozens of people waited in the rain Monday for a seat in the main courtroom to see Lai. Former Apple Daily reader Susan Li said she worried about Lai's health as he looked visibly thinner and she would continue to pray for him.
“I wanted to let him know we are still here,” she said.
When Hong Kong, a former British colony, returned to China in 1997, Beijing promised to retain the city’s civil liberties for 50 years. But critics say the promise has become threadbare after the introduction of the security law, which Chinese and Hong Kong authorities insist was necessary for the city’s stability.
People wait to enter the West Kowloon Magistrates' Courts ahead of the closing statements for Hong Kong activist publisher Jimmy Lai's national security trial in Hong Kong, Thursday, Aug. 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Chan Long Hei)
FILE - Hong Kong media tycoon Jimmy Lai pauses during an interview in Hong Kong on July 1, 2020. (AP Photo/Vincent Yu, File)
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — An ailing astronaut returned to Earth with three others on Thursday, ending their space station mission more than a month early in NASA’s first medical evacuation.
SpaceX guided the capsule to a middle-of-the-night splashdown in the Pacific near San Diego, less than 11 hours after the astronauts exited the International Space Station.
“It’s so good to be home,” said NASA astronaut Zena Cardman, the capsule commander.
It was an unexpected finish to a mission that began in August and left the orbiting lab with only one American and two Russians on board. NASA and SpaceX said they would try to move up the launch of a fresh crew of four; liftoff is currently targeted for mid-February.
Cardman and NASA’s Mike Fincke were joined on the return by Japan’s Kimiya Yui and Russia’s Oleg Platonov. Officials have refused to identify the astronaut who had the health problem or explain what happened, citing medical privacy.
While the astronaut was stable in orbit, NASA wanted them back on Earth as soon as possible to receive proper care and diagnostic testing. The entry and splashdown required no special changes or accommodations, officials said, and the recovery ship had its usual allotment of medical experts on board. It was not immediately known when the astronauts would fly from California to their home base in Houston. Platonov’s return to Moscow was also unclear.
NASA stressed repeatedly over the past week that this was not an emergency. The astronaut fell sick or was injured on Jan. 7, prompting NASA to call off the next day’s spacewalk by Cardman and Fincke, and ultimately resulting in the early return. It was the first time NASA cut short a spaceflight for medical reasons. The Russians had done so decades ago.
The space station has gotten by with three astronauts before, sometimes even with just two. NASA said it will be unable to perform a spacewalk, even for an emergency, until the arrival of the next crew, which has two Americans, one French and one Russian astronaut.
The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
Roscosmos cosmonaut Oleg Platonov is helped out of the SpaceX Dragon Endeavour spacecraft onboard the SpaceX recovery ship SHANNON after they re-entered the earth in a middle-of-the-night splashdown near San Diego, Calif., Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026. (NASA via AP)
JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) astronaut Kimiya Yui is helped out of the SpaceX Crew-11 capsule after they re-entered the earth in a middle-of-the-night splashdown near San Diego, Calif., Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026. (NASA via AP)
NASA astronaut Mike Fincke is helped out of the SpaceX Crew-11 capsule after they re-entered the earth in a middle-of-the-night splashdown near San Diego, Calif., Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026. (NASA via AP)
NASA astronaut Zena Cardman is helped out of the SpaceX Crew-11 capsule after they re-entered the earth in a middle-of-the-night splashdown near San Diego, Calif., Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026. (NASA via AP)
This screengrab from video provided by NASA shows the NASA's SpaceX Crew-11 capsule being taken into the recovery vessel after crew members re entered the earth in a middle-of-the-night splashdown near San Diego, Calif., Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026. (NASA via AP)
This screengrab from video provided by NASA shows NASA astronaut Mike Fincke getting helped out of the SpaceX Crew-11 capsule after they re-entered the earth in a middle-of-the-night splashdown near San Diego, Calif., Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026. (NASA via AP)
This screengrab from video provided by NASA shows NASA Japanese astronaut Kimiya Yui being helped out of the SpaceX Crew-11 capsule after they re-entered the earth in a middle-of-the-night splashdown near San Diego, Calif., Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026. (NASA via AP)
This screengrab from video provided by NASA shows Russian astronaut Oleg Platonov being helped out of the SpaceX Crew-11 capsule after they re-entered the earth in a middle-of-the-night splashdown near San Diego, Calif., Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026. (NASA via AP)
Roscosmos cosmonaut Oleg Platonov, left, NASA astronauts Mike Fincke, Zena Cardman, and JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) astronaut Kimiya Yui are seen inside the SpaceX Dragon Endeavour spacecraft onboard the SpaceX recovery ship SHANNON shortly after having landed in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Long Beach, Calif., Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026. (NASA via AP)
This screengrab from video provided by NASA shows NASA astronaut Zena Cardman being helped out of the SpaceX Crew-11 capsule after they re-entered the earth in a middle-of-the-night splashdown near San Diego, Calif., Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026. (NASA via AP)
This screengrab from video provided by NASA TV shows the SpaceX Dragon departing from the International Space Station shortly after undocking with four NASA Crew-11 members inside on Wednesday, Jan. 14, 2026. (NASA via AP)
This photo provided by NASA shows clockwise from bottom left are, NASA astronaut Mike Fincke, Roscosmos cosmonaut Oleg Platonov, NASA astronaut Zena Cardman, and JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) astronaut Kimiya Yui gathering for a crew portrait wearing their Dragon pressure suits during a suit verification check inside the International Space Station’s Kibo laboratory module, Wednesday, Jan. 14, 2026. (NASA via AP)
This screengrab from video provided by NASA shows recovery vessels approaching the NASA's SpaceX Crew-11 capsule to evacuate one of the crew members after they re-entered the earth in a middle-of-the-night splashdown near San Diego, Calif., Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026. (NASA via AP)
This screengrab from video provided by NASA shows the NASA's SpaceX Crew-11 members re entering the earth in a middle-of-the-night splashdown near San Diego, Calif., Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026. (NASA via AP)
This screengrab from video provided by NASA shows the NASA's SpaceX Crew-11 members re entering the earth in a middle-of-the-night splashdown near San Diego, Calif., Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026. (NASA via AP)
