The now-disbanded Hong Kong opposition party Demosisto was involved in a global advertising campaign to garner international support for the pro-democracy movement during the 2019 protests and unrest, the national security trial of media mogul Jimmy Lai has heard.
Andy Li, one of the 12 Hong Kong fugitives caught by China’s coastguard in August 2020 while trying to flee to Taiwan, continued his testimony for the prosecution on Thursday. He has pleaded guilty to conspiring to collude with foreign forces under the Beijing-imposed national security law.
For a second day Li made no mention of Lai, who has pleaded not guilty to two counts of conspiring to collude with foreign forces, an offence under the security law punishable by life imprisonment. Lai also denies one count of conspiring to publish “seditious” materials under colonial-era legislation.
See also: Media mogul Jimmy Lai’s firms helped protesters get global campaign off ground in 2019, court hears
Li told the court that Demosisto, a pro-democracy political party that dissolved in June 2020 following the enactment of the security law the same month, was involved in a campaign in June 2019 to place advertisements in leading newspapers around the world to raise “international awareness” of the pro-democracy movement.
Global campaign
Prosecutors continued to take aim at the campaign, also known as “Stand with Hong Kong” (SWHK), which involved running ads about the Hong Kong protests in 19 news media outlets in 13 countries via crowdfunding, ahead of the G20 summit in Japan in late June that year.
Notable newspapers mentioned in court included Süddeutsche Zeitung in Germany, The New York Times and The Times in the UK.
Payment records displayed by the prosecution showed that an invoice from Japanese newspaper Asahi Shimbun, dated June 26 and in the sum of ¥7 million (HK$370,335), was addressed to Demosisto.
Another invoice issued by Politico Europe, an online news outlet, dated July 5 with an amount of €5,000 (HK$42,797), was also addressed to the political party.
Li, who on Wednesday said he was responsible for crowdfunding and book-keeping for the campaign, said he could not recall how the invoice had been passed to him.
“In the G20 advertising campaign, there were members who reached out to and communicated with the newspapers… I suppose when they had to settle payments, the invoice was sent to me,” he said in Cantonese.
He said he was not sure about the identities of the Demosisto members involved in the campaign, but “speculated it could be Agnes Chow, as she was likely the only one who speaks Japanese [in the party].”
Chow, one of the best-known faces of the city’s protest movements and a founding member of Demosisto, announced in December last year that she had moved to Canada and would not return to Hong Kong. She is wanted by police for breaching her bail conditions.
Lead prosecutor Anthony Chau on Thursday – the 45th day of the trial – scrutinised Li’s bank statements and his payment records with the newspapers, which police seized at his home.
For a transaction with Apple Daily’s Taiwan edition, Chau questioned why Li’s payment of NT$1.2 million (HK$297,796) was made on July 16, while the payment was supposedly due on July 5, according to an invoice.
The witness said “T” – which Li said was a pseudonym of paralegal Chan Tsz-wah, another defendant turned prosecution witness in the trial – initially told him that “the people on [Chan’s] side” would handle the advertising fee.
Li said he himself made the transaction when Chan later asked him to settle the invoice, adding that he was not aware of the identities of the people with Chan.
Mark Simon
Separately, Chau presented an email forwarded to Li in July 2019, which suggested that a payment of US$85,050 (HK$665,222) to The Washington Post had been “received from Mark’s end.”
Li said he became aware that this was a reference to Mark Simon, Lai’s US-based personal assistant, when Chan introduced them to each other at a time “no later than September [2019].” He did not elaborate during Thursday’s hearing.
Prosecutors in their opening statement alleged that Lai was the “mastermind and financial supporter” of the SWHK campaign to lobby for foreign sanctions on the city and on China. He was said to have instructed Simon, to finance Li, Chan, and others involved in the campaign to request foreign countries to engage in hostile activities.
After Li and 11 other Hongkongers were intercepted, he served seven months in a mainland Chinese prison where he was allegedly tortured before being transferred to Hong Kong.
An international legal team representing Lai in January took their case to the UN Human Rights Council, saying there were “grave concerns… as to whether [Li’s] testimony was procured through torture and coercion.”
The trial continues on Friday.
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