Hong Kong media tycoon and pro-democracy advocate Jimmy Lai, 76, testified in court for the first time on Wednesday in his landmark national security trial, accused of endangering China's national security by colluding with foreign forces.

Former Hong Kong publisher Jimmy Lai is fighting charges of colluding with foreign forces to endanger national security and conspiring with others to issue seditious publications.

As pro-democracy media tycoon Jimmy Lai faces a potential life sentence in the high-stakes national security case in Hong Kong, his son Sebastien Lai has denounced the proceedings as a politically motivated “show trial” driven by a China-led crackdown on dissent.

Former publisher Jimmy Lai has denied that he asked a colleague to draft a list of potential sanction targets in testimony at his landmark national security trial in Hong Kong.

Jailed former Hong Kong media mogul Jimmy Lai took the stand for the first time Wednesday in his trial on conspiracy to collude with foreign powers and publishing seditious anti-government material.

Lai, a leading pro-democracy figure and founder of the now-closed Apple Daily, faces a possible life sentence.

Lai has been accused of sedition and foreign collusion. He has been held in solitary confinement since December 2020.

Pro-democracy activist Jimmy Lai said on Thursday he was against violence and had not sought to incite hatred against China and Hong Kong authorities by calling for protests to defend basic rights, speaking in his second day of testimony in a landmark national security trial.