Hong Kong media mogul Jimmy Lai was willing to provide “all kinds of help,” including a HK$1.5 million loan, to activists launching a global advertising campaign in June 2019, the mogul’s national security trial has heard.
Prosecution witness Chan Tsz-wah, a paralegal that prosecutors alleged was a middleman who linked Lai with the Fight for Freedom, Stand with Hong Kong (SWHK) advocacy group, also said on Friday that veteran democrat Martin Lee connected him with the mogul’s personal assistant, Mark Simon.
Chan agreed to testify against Lai after pleading guilty to conspiring to collude with foreign forces under the Beijing-imposed national security law in July 2021. He has been detained since February that year following his arrest.
Lai, 76, is standing trial on two counts of conspiring to collude with foreign forces and one count of conspiring to publish “seditious” materials. He has pleaded not guilty to all three charges.
Prosecutors alleged Lai financed and instructed SWHK in requesting foreign sanctions and other “hostile acts” against Hong Kong and China.
Prosecution witness
Donning a dark grey suit and a pair of thin-rimmed glasses, Chan appeared at the West Kowloon Law Courts Building on Friday to begin his testimony as the trial entered its 59th day.
The court heard Chan started his career in 2018 as a paralegal and that it was his sole source of income up to his arrest.
Chan explained how activists planned to place political advertisements in international newspapers ahead of the G20 Summit in Japan in late-June 2019, in an effort to draw international attention to the large-scale protest triggered by a controversial extradition bill at that time.
He said a chat group on messaging app Telegram consisting of thousands of members was formed in relation to the campaign, but the group could not immediately withdraw its crowdfunding proceeds as funding.
“[A member] suggested we could reach out to Jimmy Lai or his friends to solve… this money issue,” Chan said in Cantonese.
“And then someone suggested if anyone knew Jimmy Lai [in person], perhaps we could contact Martin Lee, because everybody knew they were close to each other,” he added.
Chan said an unidentified member sent out Lee’s number in the group, which he first thought “was a joke” because it had six identical digits.
“I braced myself to call the number and was able to reach Martin Lee,” he said, adding that he told the democrat the campaign needed a “bridging loan” of HK$3 million.
Martin Lee later referred Chan to Mark Simon, Lai’s personal assistant, as Lai was not in Hong Kong at that time, Chan told the court.
“[Simon] told me Jimmy was willing to provide all kinds of help to support this type of publicity campaign,” the witness said.
Simon offered to provide a loan of up to HK$5 million and eventually made about HK$1.5 million in advance payment to various newspapers, he added.
Chan said his role was to facilitate the correspondence of invoices and payment records between Simon and another prosecution witness Andy Li, who completed testimony on Thursday.
The court previously heard Li, a programmer turned lobbyist, was the bookkeeper for the campaign which involved running adverts in 20 newspapers in 13 countries. Chan said on Friday that Li was responsible for making repayments to Simon afterwards.
He added that Lai and Simon did not demand any interest or guarantees for the repayment of the loan.
‘Finance, networking, and media connections’
The witness also recalled a meeting with Simon in the Mandarin Oriental hotel in Central in July 2019, saying that Simon “greatly praised” the outcome and the impact of the campaign at the meeting.
“[Simon] told me the future of publicity work should retain the influence of the G20 advertising campaign,” Chan said. “If we could continue the work in this regard, which aligned with their political ideology, he said he was willing to help in terms of finance, networking, and media connections.”
Chan said Simon did not elaborate on his political ideology, but added that he mentioned democracy several times.
He also said Simon offered to help him with setting up an offshore bank account due to his business endeavour at the time, which Simon described as a “reward.”
The trial continues on Monday.
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