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.

HONG KONG (Reuters) - 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.

Jimmy Lai, who is charged with national security offenses, testified that his newspaper “carried a torch to the reality” of people’s desire for freedom in the city.

Jimmy Lai, the pugnacious Hong Kong media tycoon whose now shuttered tabloid Apple Daily was a regular thorn in Beijing’s side, took the stand Wednesday in his own defense for the first time in a high stakes national security trial that could send him to prison for life.

The democracy advocates were charged in Hong Kong under a Beijing-imposed national security law in 2021 for their involvement in an unofficial primary election to pick opposition candidates.

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

Hong Kong's former colonial ruler Britain and the United States have condemned the trial and have called for Lai's immediate release. Hong Kong officials say Lai will receive a fa

Pro-democracy advocate and media mogul Jimmy Lai revealed in his trial in Hong Kong on Wednesday that he had hoped Donald Trump could intervene to stop the imposition of Beijing’s national security law in 2020.