HONG KONG (Reuters) -A Hong Kong court on Friday rejected a bid by the legal team for pro-democracy tycoon Jimmy Lai to have sedition charge against him dropped, in a closely watched national security trial.
Lai, 76, the founder of now-shuttered pro-democracy newspaper Apple Daily, was charged with conspiracy to publish seditious publications under a colonial-era sedition law.
Lai's lawyer had asked the court to scrap or limit the timeframe of the prosecution's sedition conspiracy charge, due to a requirement under local laws that charges must be brought within six months of an alleged offence.
However, the three government appointed judges in the trial - Esther Toh, Susana D'Almada Remedios and Alex Lee - said a time limit did not apply as the conspiracy was "a continuing offense and therefore the time limitation did not start to run until after the last date of the alleged conspiracy".
"The court ruled that the prosecution of the sedition charge against the defendants was not time-barred," the judges said in a summary of their judgement. "Therefore, the Court had jurisdiction to try the defendants on the sedition charge."
Lai also faces two charges under a China-imposed national security law of conspiring to collude with foreign forces, which could see him jailed for life.
Lai has pleaded not guilty to all charges.
(Reporting by Jessie Pang and Dorothy Kam; Editing by James Pomfret, Christian Schmollinger and Michael Perry)