HONG KONG (AP) — Former publisher Jimmy Lai denied that he asked a colleague to draft a list of potential sanction targets in his second day of testimony Thursday at his landmark national security trial in Hong Kong.
The 77-year-old founder of the now-shuttered Apple Daily pro-democracy newspaper is being tried on charges of colluding with foreign forces to endanger national security and conspiring with others to issue seditious publications. He was arrested in 2020 in a political crackdown following massive anti-government protests in 2019. If convicted, he faces up to life in prison.
The testimony highlighted WhatsApp conversations between Lai and Apple Daily’s ex-associate publisher Chan Pui-man. She was one of six former Apple Daily executives who pleaded guilty to conspiring with Lai to call for sanctions or a blockade or to engage in other hostile activities against Hong Kong or China.
Lai's lawyer Steven Kwan showed the messages in court after Chan earlier in the trial said that Lai had suggested the newspaper prepare a sanction list after then-President Donald Trump signed a directive seeking to punish those the U.S. government determines have helped to curtail Hong Kong’s civil liberties.
Lai said Thursday he did not write that message and had just copied and pasted the text he received from a person he suspected was connected with the White House. He said he did not read the full text thoroughly before forwarding it. He said the text "sounds so foreign to me."
Kwan said Lai sent the same message to several pro-democracy politicians, including Lee Wing-tat. Asked whether he intended to ask Lee to work up such a list, Lai answered “that would be ridiculous.”
After the security law was enacted in June 2020, the Trump administration imposed sanctions on Hong Kong officials, accusing them of cooperating with Beijing’s effort to undermine autonomy and crack down on freedom in the city.
Authorities have used the law to prosecute Lai and other leading activists. Under the threat of the law, dozens of civil society groups disbanded and some other activists were forced into self-exile. Apple Daily closed in 2021 following the arrests of some of its senior managers.
Critics say the drastic political changes reflect the freedoms promised to be kept intact in the former British colony when it returned to Chinese rule in 1997 were shrinking. But Beijing and Hong Kong governments said the law restored the city's stability following the 2019 protests.
The court also heard Lai had reminded his staff working on international news not to go against Trump in 2020 when they were hoping Trump would do something to stop the national security law. Lai said he did not interfere with the way those journalists worked until the law loomed.
On Wednesday, asked how he thought Trump could help, Lai said “a call to China, a call to Xi Jinping, whatever,” referring to the Chinese president. He said his newspaper would not be able to survive under the law but he never communicated with Trump.
The trial will continue on Friday.
FILE- Jimmy Lai walks through the Stanley prison in Hong Kong, on July 28, 2023. (AP Photo/Louise Delmotte, File)
Hong Kong media tycoon Jimmy Lai, who founded local newspaper Apple Daily, is about to wear a face mask before entering a court in Hong Kong on May 5, 2020. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung, File)
Jimmy Lai's wife Teresa Lai, left, and retired Chinese cardinal Joseph Zen Ze-Kiun arrive at West Kowloon Magistrates' Courts to attend Hong Kong activist publisher Lai's national security trial in Hong Kong, Wednesday, Nov. 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Chan Long Hei)
A Correctional Services Department vehicle arrives at the West Kowloon Magistrates' Courts in Hong Kong, Wednesday, Nov. 20, 2024, ahead of Hong Kong activist publisher Jimmy Lai's national security trial. (AP Photo/Chan Long Hei)
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) — Argentina produces some of the best soccer players on the planet and has three World Cup titles to prove it.
Off the field, though, a major power struggle is transpiring between Argentina President Javier Milei and Argentine Football Association president Claudio Tapia.
Tapia opposes Milei's effort to enable soccer clubs to become sports limited companies, inspired by the model of the English Premier League. He wants clubs to continue to belong to members — not to private shareholders.
The government threatened to intervene in AFA due to alleged irregularities in Tapia’s re-election to a third term.
Amid this struggle, FIFA and CONMEBOL warned that any government interference in the management of AFA will result in its disaffiliation, and its teams will be marginalized from all competitions.
Milei, a libertarian economist who has pushed economic deregulation, signed a decree last December enabling soccer clubs organized as civil associations to transform into public limited companies. The former do not pursue a commercial purpose, while PLCs seek profit.
The government also gave sports associations, federations and confederations a period of one year from August to modify their statutes and accept this new form of organization.
The new model is optional and clubs that want to transform into sports corporations will require the vote of two-thirds of their members present at an extraordinary assembly.
Milei said that the time has come to end “poor socialism in soccer” and predicted a windfall of investment.
AFA says its statutes prohibit the affiliation and participation in its tournaments of sports corporations. It won a court order blocking the decree. That ruling was appealed by the government and the Supreme Court will have the last word.
“The clubs need to fulfill the function they fulfill as the civil associations that they are,” Tapia said. “I am convinced that that is its essence. Most clubs have an established statute that civil associations are not to be changed.”
If a club decides to become a public limited company, it will be disaffiliated, AFA warned.
Argentina is a renown producer of soccer talent — Lionel Messi and Diego Maradona start the list.
Despite the success developing young players, most clubs are forced to let them go earlier to be able to financially sustain not only their professional team, but also other sports and social activities in the club.
“In soccer in Argentina we are 40 years behind,” said Guillermo Tofoni, a FIFA agent who is also an adviser in Milei's government. “It is played any day, at any time, the tournaments (formats) change, the corruption of the referees. All this combination means that the television networks do not pay what they deserve, and a vicious and non-virtuous circle is generated.”
Argentine soccer receives less than $100 million a year for television rights, far below the billions of dollars shared by English Premier League clubs.
According to Tofoni, with genuine private capital investment “clubs can keep their players until they are 24, 25 years old, and sell them to the European market when it is convenient, not because they need to.”
So far, Estudiantes La Plata and Talleres de Córdoba are the only clubs publicly in favor of allowing private capital to enter soccer.
“I am pragmatic, I understand that soccer is a business. They leave us out of business, Argentina, Argentine soccer is out of business,” Estudiantes president Juan Sebastián Verón said. “Let us not be afraid of growth, of the new, which can take us to a very important place in the future.”
The former Argentina midfielder recently signed a pre-agreement with the American businessman Foster Gillett, who will invest $150 million in the club.
In turn, the American investor will benefit from future sales of players, the commercial exploitation of the stadium’s name and profits from competing in international tournaments. The agreement must be endorsed by the members of “Pincha” in an extraordinary assembly.
Amid the dispute, Tapia called an election of new AFA authorities a year early. As the only candidate, Tapia was re-elected to a third term on Oct. 17, thus ensuring he would continue in office until 2028 — a year after the end of Milei’s term.
“It looks like Venezuela with (President Nicolás) Maduro celebrated Christmas earlier,” said Milei, who a few days later signed a decree that took away social security benefits from AFA.
In turn, the General Inspection of Justice, a body dependent on the Ministry of Justice and in charge of regulating civil associations, challenged Tapia’s re-election and threatened to intervene in the AFA.
However, a civil appeals court upheld the October vote.
Both entities are closely following the dispute. In official notes, they indicated that only the local federation can set the statutory framework of the clubs and warned that state interference is a cause for disaffiliation.
“The AFA, and only the AFA, is, in view of the legal framework of FIFA, the only entity competent to decide, through its legitimate associative governing bodies, aspects relating to the legal nature of the clubs affiliated to the same,” FIFA said.
FIFA president Gianni Infantino also congratulated Tapia on his re-election and thanked him for “all his efforts, work and important contribution to the development of our sport.”
AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer
FILE - Fans gather to celebrate the anniversary of the "Hand of God" goal and the "Goal of the Century" scored by soccer legend Diego Maradona against England during the 1986 World Cup quarterfinals, in Buenos Aires, Argentina, June 22, 2024. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd, File)
FILE - Claudio Tapia, president of the Argentine Football Association, AFA, attends the presentation of the Aerolíneas Argentinas World Cup aircraft, in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Oct. 6, 2022. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko, File)
FILE - Argentina's Lionel Messi, holding the Copa America trophy, celebrates with teammates their victory over Colombia in the Copa America final soccer match in Miami Gardens, Fla., July 15, 2024. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell, File)
FILE - CONMEBOL President Alejandro Dominguez present to soccer legend Lionel Messi the Leadership and Command of World Soccer baton as Claudio Tapia, president of the Argentina Soccer Association or AFA, looks on during a ceremony at CONMEBOL headquarters in Asuncion, Paraguay, March 27, 2023. (AP Photo/Jorge Saenz, File)
FILE - Claudio Tapia, president of the Argentina Soccer Association or AFA, backdropped by a bus banner of featuring World Cup 2022 team players, attends the "World Champions" exhibit in Buenos Aires, Argentina, April 5, 2023. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko, File)
FILE - Presidential hopeful Javier Milei holds up a replica of the World Cup soccer trophy during a campaign rally in Lomas de Zamora, Argentina, Oct. 16, 2023. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko, File)
