Hong Kong media tycoon Jimmy Lai Chee-ying is taken under police escort to the West Kowloon Magistrates' Courts for trial, in Hong Kong, Dec 12, 2020. (PHOTO / XINHUA)

HONG KONG - A Hong Kong judge has transferred a national security case involving media tycoon Jimmy Lai Chee-ying to the High Court.

During a brief hearing on Tuesday, West Kowloon Chief Magistrate Victor So accepted the prosecutors’ request to transfer Lai’s case to the High Court on July 27. 

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With his case adjourned, Lai, already behind bars for convictions stemming from illegal assemblies, was sent back to custody.

Lai was charged with three offenses, including collusion with external forces to endanger national security and conspiracy to pervert the course of public justice.

The prosecutor said the defendant and several other people had requested external elements to impose sanctions against China's Hong Kong Special Administrative Region or the country from July 1, 2020 to February 15 of this year. Lai also assisted a man who was arrested but released on bail to flee Hong Kong in July and August of last year.

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Lai, accused of multiple offenses during the period of Hong Kong's social unrest, has been sentenced to 20 months in jail for organizing and taking part in illegal assemblies.