Prosecutors have accused former media tycoon Jimmy Lai of lying when testifying in his national security trial by denying knowledge of lobby groups that were pushing for actions against China.

Entering a third day of closing submissions on Wednesday, prosecutor Anthony Chau pointed to “inconsistencies and fallacies” in the defendant’s evidence, alleging Lai of concealing his knowledge of the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China (IPAC) before his arrest.

“During the examination in chief, [Lai] told the court at least three times that he's never heard of IPAC,” he said.

Contending that Lai “knew exactly what the IPAC was doing”, the prosecution showed conversations the defendant had with the group’s co-founder and tweets shared on his Twitter – now known as X – account.

Lai also had a clear knowledge of the “Fight for Freedom, Standing with Hong Kong” (SWHK) advocacy group’s connection with the alliance, Chau argued.

The court heard that Lai called for international lobbying to “persist”, despite concerns over the national security law raised by paralegal Wayland Chan, one of the trial’s prosecution witnesses.

“[Lai] still encouraged [Chan] to persist, saying that [the national security law was] more bark than bite,” Chau said.

“[Lai] also said that he would set a good example by appealing for sanctions through media outlets and asking for attention.”

Prosecutor Chau reiterated that the defendant had admitted to carrying out two of four steps in a roadmap to instigate Beijing’s political and economic collapse through canvassing foreign support.

One of the three judges, Alex Lee, reminded the prosecution that it only had to prove the defendant “had the intention” – after the security law’s implementation – to carry out his part of the agreement with other alleged co-conspirators.

Lai had denied three conspiracy charges relating to collusion with foreign forces and sedition.

His lawyers, in their final submissions, contested the 161 Apple Daily articles used by the prosecution as examples to accuse the former media boss of conspiracy.

Senior Counsel Robert Pang singled out three of the articles to say they were a form of “pure reporting”.

Judge Lee, in response, said the bench will look beyond the articles when making a ruling.

The defence will continue its closing arguments on Thursday.