Jimmy Lai, the Hong Kong media mogul and pro-democracy figure, took the stand on Wednesday for the first time in court since his arrest nearly four years ago, saying his newspaper represented the freedoms that people in the city valued.

近四年前被逮捕的香港媒体大亨、亲民主人士黎智英于周三首次出庭作证，称他的报纸代表着这座城市的人们所珍视的自由。

One of the most vocal critics of China’s ruling Communist Party, Mr. Lai, 77, is accused of being the mastermind behind anti-government protests that swept across the city in 2019. Prosecutors in a landmark national security trial have charged him with conspiring and colluding with “foreign forces.” They say he led a campaign to get foreign governments to target Hong Kong and China with sanctions in response to moves by authorities to crush dissent.

作为执政的中国共产党的最激烈批评者之一，现年77岁的黎智英被指控为2019年席卷全港的反政府抗议活动的幕后指使者。在一场里程碑式的国家安全审判中，检方指控他与外国势力“串谋勾结”。检方称他发起了一场行动，促使外国政府对香港和中国施加制裁，以作为对当局压制异议举措的回应。

Mr. Lai, who has pleaded not guilty, faces up to life in prison if convicted.

黎智英拒绝认罪，如果被判罪成，他最高可面临无期徒刑。

Mr. Lai for decades ran a popular newspaper, Apple Daily, that championed pro-democracy voices. The paper, now shuttered, was at the forefront of the 2019 demonstrations, amplifying protest slogans and publishing editorials and cartoons urging people in Hong Kong to join the movement.

几十年来，黎智英一直经营着受欢迎的报纸《苹果日报》，该报积极倡导民主声音。这家如今已经关门的报纸在2019年的抗议活动中身先士卒，宣传抗议的口号，发表社论和漫画，敦促香港人加入到他们的行列。

Taking the stand, Mr. Lai said Apple Daily reflected the values of the Hong Kong people when asked by his defense team why he got into the media business.

在法庭上，黎智英的辩护团队问他为什么从事媒体行业，他说，因为《苹果日报》反映了香港人的价值观。

“The more information you have, the more you’re in the know, the more you are free,” Mr. Lai said in a packed courtroom.

“因为你拥有的资讯越多，你知道的就越多，你就越自由，”黎智英在座无虚席的法庭上说。

Steven Kwan, his defense attorney, asked Mr. Lai what Apple Daily’s core values were. Mr. Lai responded, “Rule of law, pursuit of democracy, freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom of assembly.”

他的辩护律师关文渭问黎智英，《苹果日报》的核心价值是什么。黎回答：“法治，对民主、言论自由、宗教自由、集会自由的追求。”

Responding to the accusation that he supported secession, Mr. Lai said he did not agree with the Hong Kong and Taiwanese independence movements, describing them as “crazy.” He said none of his staff at Apple Daily would have supported independence in Hong Kong or Taiwan, the self-governed democracy China claims as its territory.

对于他支持分裂的指控，黎智英说他不认同香港和台湾的独立运动，称那是“疯狂”之举。他说《苹果日报》的员工都不会支持香港或台湾的独立，后者是一个自治民主政体，但中国认为属其领土。

Mr. Lai’s testimony comes a day after a national security court handed down prison sentences ranging from just over four years to 10 years for 45 former pro-democracy lawmakers and activists who were the most prominent members of Hong Kong’s political opposition.

黎智英出庭作证前一天，一个国家安全法庭判处45名前亲民主议员和活动人士四到10年不等的徒刑，这些人大多是香港政治反对派的著名成员。

His case has captured worldwide attention as a symbol of Hong Kong’s political transformation since Beijing imposed a national security law in 2020 to bring an end to the social unrest. The authorities have used the law to crack down on rights that had long distinguished Hong Kong from mainland China, such as freedoms of speech and assembly.

从2020年北京为结束社会动乱颁布国家安全法以来，香港经历了政治剧变。作为这一转变的标志，黎智英的案件引起了全世界的关注。当局使用国家安全法法压制了一直以来让香港与中国大陆不同的权利，比如言论和集会自由权。

Prosecutors argued in his trial that Mr. Lai was a “radical political figure” who led a global effort to undermine Beijing’s authority over Hong Kong, a partially autonomous city of more than seven million. Mr. Lai also faces a colonial-era sedition charge over material published in his Apple tabloid.

检方在庭审中提出，黎智英是一名“激进政治人物”，领导了一场全球行动，以求颠覆北京在香港的权威，这座人口超过700万的城市一直处于部分自治状态。此外，黎智英还因《苹果日报》出版的内容面临一项殖民时代的煽动暴乱指控。

His supporters say Mr. Lai is merely practicing journalism and standing up for democratic rights that were promised to Hong Kong when Britain returned the territory to Chinese rule in 1997. Among them is his son Sebastien Lai, who has led an international campaign from overseas to free his father.

黎智英的支持者说，他只是在从事新闻工作，捍卫香港的民主权利，该权利是1997年英国将香港归还中国时承诺给这座城市的。他的儿子黎崇恩也是其支持者之一，为了争取父亲的获释，黎崇恩正在国外领导一场国际行动。

“I know what he is doing is the right thing and I am very proud of him,” said Sebastien Lai, 30. “My father is a very strong person, mentally and spiritually. But he’s been in there for almost four years. It’s completely inhumane.”

“我知道他在做争取的事，我为他骄傲，”现年30岁的黎崇恩说。“父亲是一个心理和精神上都很坚强的人。但他在里面已经待了将近四年。这完全是不人道的。”

Concern is growing for Mr. Lai’s health given his advanced age. Mr. Lai has diabetes and often spends 23 hours a day living in solitary confinement. The public was given a rare glimpse of Mr. Lai’s life in prison last year when The Associated Press published photographs of the media tycoon, accompanied by guards while exercising alone in a small enclosure surrounded by high barbed wire fence.

由于年事已高，黎智英的健康状况日益引人担忧。患有糖尿病的黎智英经常一天有23小时接受单独监禁。去年，美联社发布了一组照片，让公众罕见地得以一窥黎智英在狱中的生活。照片显示，在狱卒的监视下，他独自一人在四周有铁丝网的小空间里锻炼。

The Hong Kong government said in a statement on Sunday that Mr. Lai was receiving “appropriate treatment and care” in custody. It also said that Mr. Lai had asked to be held in solitary confinement.

香港政府周日发布声明称，黎智英在狱中“获适切治疗及待遇”，并表示是黎自己要求接受单独监禁。

Western governments, including the United States and Britain, have condemned Mr. Lai’s arrest and called for his release. President-elect Donald J. Trump said last month in a podcast interview that he would “100 percent” get Mr. Lai out of prison, adding that it would be “easy.”

包括美国和英国在内的西方政府对黎智英的被捕表示了谴责，并要求将其释放。候任总统特朗普上月在一次播客采访中说，他“百分之百”会促成黎智英的获释，并且说那将是“小事一桩”。

Mr. Lai is a British citizen and on Monday, the country’s prime minister, Keir Starmer, raised concerns about the “deterioration” of Mr. Lai’s health while speaking to China’s top leader, Xi Jinping, on the sidelines of the Group of 20 summit in Brazil. Seconds after the exchange, the Chinese delegation ejected journalists from the room where the meeting was being held before Mr. Starmer had finished talking.

黎智英是英国公民，周一在巴西20国集团峰会期间，英国首相斯塔默在与中国最高领导人习近平的场边会上提出了这一关切。讲话开始不久，中国代表团就要求记者清场，当时斯塔默的发言还没有结束。

The prosecution’s case relies partly on Mr. Lai’s public statements, some made in online posts and videos, and others made in interviews, appealing to foreign governments to pressure China to live up to its promise to grant Hong Kong greater democracy. That includes meetings Mr. Lai had with then-Vice President Mike Pence and then-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.

对黎智英的诉讼部分根据的是他的公开言论，有些是通过网络贴文和视频，有些是通过采访，他在其中呼吁外国政府向中国施压，兑现其让香港拥有更多民主的承诺。这包括了与时任副总统迈克·彭斯和时任国务卿迈克·庞皮欧的会面。

周三，黎智英国家安全案开庭前，人们在法院外等待入场。

When Mr. Lai was brought into the courtroom and briefly held in a glass enclosure flanked by two officers, he waved at his wife and daughter. He wore a brown blazer and green sweater over a white dress shirt, and spoke in a gravelly voice.

黎智英被带入法庭后一度坐在一个玻璃隔间内，身旁有两名警官，他向妻子和女儿挥手致意。他身穿褐色外套和绿色毛衣，内有一件白色正装衬衫，他的声音显得沙哑凝重。

Mr. Lai was not always thought of as a political firebrand. For years, he embodied Hong Kong’s rags-to-riches success; an immigrant from the mainland who worked at a factory and later made a fortune founding the clothing brand, Giordano.

黎智英起初并不是在政治上惹是生非的人物。多年来，他一直是香港的一个白手起家的成功故事。他从大陆移民至香港，在工厂打工，后来创办服装品牌佐丹奴致富。

His politics hardened after the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown that killed hundreds, possibly thousands, of pro-democracy demonstrators. Shortly after, he turned to publishing by launching Next Magazine in 1990 and Apple Daily in 1995.

1989年天安门广场镇压致数百甚至可能数千民主抗议人士遇害后，他的政治立场变得强硬起来。不久后的1990年，他创办了《壹周刊》，1995年又创办《苹果日报》。

Sebastien Lai has considered the possibility that he may never hear from his father again once the trial ends.

黎崇恩说他已经有心理准备，可能在审判结束后将再也见不到父亲。

“The case is very urgent,” he said. “Who knows how much time he has left.”

“这是一个紧急的案件，”他说。“谁知道他还有多少时间。”