The now 76-year-old media tycoon and democracy advocate has been in prison for three years and is accused of “collaborating with foreign forces”.

Hong Kong media tycoon Jimmy Lai has been put on trial over alleged national security breaches, just hours after the UK joined calls for his immediate release.

Lai, who has been detained since December 2020, arrived in court at 10 a.m. (02:00 GMT), where he will be charged with conspiring to collude with foreign powers under the national security law that China imposed on the territory in June 2020.

Journalists in the courtroom said the 76-year-old, wearing a blue shirt and holding a book, looked like he had lost weight but was in good spirits.

The publisher of the now-defunct Apple Daily is one of China’s most vocal critics and was first arrested in August 2020 when police raided the newspaper’s officers.

The trial should have started a year ago, but it actually started delayed After the government challenged his choice of defense attorney, Timothy Owen, a U.K.-based lawyer, called for Beijing’s intervention.

Lai and the Apple Daily are also facing charges under a British colonial-era sedition law.

He pleaded not guilty to all charges.

In a statement late Sunday, British Foreign Secretary David Cameron said he was “deeply concerned” about the trial and joined the United States and the European Union in calling for Lai’s immediate release.

Lai is a British citizen.

“As a prominent and outspoken journalist and publisher, Jimmy Lai was clearly targeted to prevent the peaceful exercise of his rights to freedom of expression and association,” Cameron said, pointing out that the security law violated the commitments made to Hong Kong, as it regained sovereignty over the territory in 1997.

“I call on the Chinese authorities to repeal the National Security Law and end prosecution of all individuals charged under this law. I call on the Hong Kong authorities to end their prosecution and release Jimmy Lai.”

“Rule by law”

Hong Kong’s pro-democracy politicians, once a vibrant civil society and media, came under pressure as a result Mass demonstrations in 2019which began with concerns about a planned extradition bill with mainland China and developed into calls for more democracy.

A year after its introduction, Amnesty International said the security law had “decimated“Hong Kong’s Rights and Freedoms.”

The US also called for Lai’s immediate release and condemned the prosecution.

“Lai has been in custody for more than 1,000 days and the authorities in Hong Kong and Beijing have denied him the opportunity to be represented by a lawyer,” U.S. State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said in a statement. “We call on the Hong Kong authorities to immediately release Jimmy Lai and all others detained for defending their rights.”

Security was tight on Monday after Security Minister Chris Tang announced it would be tightened because “cases of this kind” had previously attracted people seeking to disrupt proceedings and harass prosecutors.

People started queuing early for tickets as only 70 seats were open to the public in the main venue at the West Kowloon Courthouse.

Some police officers wore riot gear, others had dogs. A bomb disposal vehicle was parked nearby.

“Jimmy Lai’s case is about weaponizing the legal system in Hong Kong,” Finn Lau, a UK-based activist and founder of Hong Kong Liberty, told Al Jazeera. “The rule of law no longer exists in Hong Kong. It’s simply a legal regulation.”

Lai has already been convicted and imprisoned for various cases related to Apple Daily’s management and himself Participation in a vigil on the occasion of the Tiananmen Square massacre in 1989.

The latest edition of the Apple Daily was printed in June 2021.

Other publications critical of the government were also suspended, while elections were overhauled to ensure that only so-called “patriots” could hold public office in the territory.

There was one in the district council elections last week Record low voter turnout of just 27.5 percent. The number of directly elected seats was reduced to just 88 from the previous 462, and all candidates had to obtain official approval before they could run.

“Measures that suppress press freedom and restrict the free flow of information – as well as changes to Hong Kong’s electoral system by Beijing and local authorities that restrict direct voting and bar independent and pro-democracy party candidates from participating – have undermined Hong Kong’s democratic institutions.” Reputation as an international business and financial center damaged,” Miller said in his statement.