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, 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.

Jailed Hong Kong tycoon Jimmy Lai on Friday said he had advocated for "peaceful resistance" against China's erosion of the city's freedoms and tried to "reduce violence" during huge democracy protests in 2019.

Lai, the founder of the now-defunct Apple Daily newspaper, is facing charges of conspiracy to collude with foreign forces and publishing seditious materials, all of which are crimes under Hong Kong’s controversial national security law,

Lai denies inciting hatred against authorities through three commentaries he wrote for Apple Daily Former Hong Kong media boss Jimmy Lai Chee-ying will continue his testimony on Friday in his high-profile national security trial,