Overview

• The hearing set to start Thursday was moved to Monday after heavy rain disrupted the schedule and Lai’s lawyers flagged heart palpitations.
• Judge Alex Lee deemed a Monday restart “prudent” and Judge Esther Toh reported that court-appointed medics detected no abnormality with Lai’s heart.
• Lai faces charges of colluding with foreign forces and seditious publication under the 2020 National Security Law, carrying a potential life sentence if convicted.
• Detained since 2020, Lai’s attorneys say he has spent much of his time in solitary confinement and been denied independent diabetes care.
• Rights organizations and Lai’s son have urged the UK and US to press Hong Kong authorities over his health and detention conditions.