Jimmy Lai’s health issues force trial postponement
August 18, 2025
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CWN Editor's Note: The Hong Kong trial of Jimmy Lai, the Catholic publisher and democracy activist, was postponed twice last week—first because of a typhoon warning, then because the defendant’s health.
Lai, who has been jailed since 2020 on various charges connected with his role as a leader in the pro-democracy movement, now faces felony charges, under Hong Kong’s sweeping national-security law, of “collusion with a foreign state.” The 77-year-old convert to Catholicism, who declined to leave Hong Kong and chose to fight the legal charges, could face life imprisonment.
The final phase of his trial was scheduled to open on Thursday, August 14, but was postponed because of an adverse weather forecast. On Friday, when his lawyers said that Lai was suffering heart palpitations, the trial was put off again.
Closing arguments began on August 18.
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