3 Hong Kong judges deny Jimmy Lai defence team’s request to recall key prosecution witness to the stand

She stressed prosecutors were never in possession of any such abstract stored on workplace communication app Slack nor was it accessible by them.

The judge also highlighted that Lai was himself a participant in the relevant Slack conversations and that the defence had more than two years to prepare for their case after receiving the sworn statements of Cheung and other witnesses.

“Whatever motivation may be, it is not for us to determine, but looking solely at the facts, it is clearly not in the interest of justice to allow the recall of [Cheung],” Remedios added.

Lai’s legal team lodged the application at the eleventh hour as they sought to challenge Cheung’s understanding of the nature of the meetings.

Prosecutors argued the meetings were designed for Lai to influence high-level editorial decisions by Apple Daily and further his anti-government agenda.

The defence countered by categorising the decisions made in those meetings as purely commercial.

A lawyer on Lai’s legal team earlier testified that the abstracts’ existence only came to their knowledge in late January this year when Cheung was giving evidence.

They received copies of the Slack dialogues from Lai’s daughter, Claire Lai Choi, who was able to produce screenshots of the communications by logging in using the tycoon’s credentials.

The trial continues.