Hong Kong activists urged US, Canada to impose sanctions and restrict arms sales amid 2019 protests, Jimmy Lai trial hears
Hong Kong Free Press
Hong Kong activists appealed to Canada and the US to restrict arms sales to the city and to impose sanctions on city officials over alleged “human rights abuses” during the 2019 protests and unrest, the national security trial of media mogul Jimmy Lai has heard.
Lead prosecutor Anthony Chau on Tuesday drew the court’s attention to two advertisements Hong Kong activists placed in international media outlets in August 2019. At the time, the city was embroiled in large-scale protests triggered by a proposed amendment to the its extradition bill that was later withdrawn.
The court earlier heard that the political advertisements were part of a wider campaign called “Fight for Freedom, Stand with Hong Kong” (SWHK), which spent about HK$6.3 million to advertise in newspapers in countries including the US, UK, Canada, Japan, South Korea, Finland, and Denmark.
In an ad published in Canadian newspaper The Globe and Mail, activists called on the Canadian government “to exert diplomatic pressure on Hong Kong and Beijing and to adopt policies… such as sanctions and bans on arms exports,” according to a copy displayed in court on Tuesday.
Another ad published in The New York Times International Edition read: “Contact your Senators and Representatives to support and become a co-sponsor to the Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act of 2019… and to support the introduction of legislation to suspend US sales of ammunition and other crowd control equipment to the Hong Kong police.”
The act, which became US law in November 2019, stipulates that the US could impose sanctions on individuals seen as violating human rights in Hong Kong.
Advertising campaign
Andy Li, one of 12 Hongkongers caught by Chinese coastguard in August 2020 and who is testifying for the prosecution against Lai, confirmed that both ads were part of the SWHK campaign. Li added that he was not certain whether the content and the design of the ads were similar to those published in other newspapers during the campaign.
“I think the only common ground was that [the ads] were in support of Hong Kong’s freedom and democracy at the time,” Li told the court in Cantonese on Tuesday, the 48th day of the trial.
Li, who was charged alongside Lai over conspiring to collude with foreign forces under the national security law, has pleaded guilty and is now testifying against the media mogul.
He previously told the court that he was the book-keeper for three crowdfunding campaigns between June and August 2019 to support global advertising efforts to draw international attention to the protests in Hong Kong.
Prosecutors allege that the SWHK campaign was ultimately instructed and financed by Lai in a bid to attract foreign sanctions and hostile acts on Hong Kong and China.
Lai, 76, has pleaded not guilty to two counts of conspiring to collude with foreign forces under the Beijing-imposed national security law, as well as one count of conspiring to publish seditious materials under colonial-era legislation.
He faces spending the rest of his life behind bars if convicted of the national security offence.
The court at the West Kowloon Law Courts Building on Tuesday also heard that Li made an advance payment of around HK$1.47 million to Japanese newspaper Nikkei in August 2019, although it was later reimbursed.
An invoice issued by the Japanese newspaper was addressed to Agnes Chow, who is currently based in the Canada and wanted by national security police over breaching her bail conditions.
Li, however, told the court he made the payment in cash to Nikkei’s Hong Kong office after “T” – a pseudonym for paralegal Chan Tsz-wah, another defendant turned prosecution witness in the trial – could not settle the payment in time.
Li also said that the campaign in August 2019 was supported by advance payments made by himself and “people from T’s side,” whose identities Li said he was not aware of.
The court heard that Li had paid close to HK$2 million to various newspapers including France’s Le Monde, The Australian, Liberty Times in Taiwan, and Berlingske in Denmark, among others.
Meanwhile, transfer receipts issued by a Canada-based credit union – which Li said were passed to him by Chan – showed that payments totalling HK$3.5 million were made to newspapers including Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung in Germany and seven British publications.
Separately, Chau asked about the whereabout of a surplus of almost US$700,000 (HK$5.48 million), citing an income and expenditure balance sheet that Li prepared for the campaign until May 2020.
Li said the surplus was used to support SWHK’s activities for Hong Kong’s freedom and democracy in “various parts of the world.”
The court on Tuesday also heard that Mark Simon, Lai’s US-based aide, was involved in handling the crowdfunding proceeds raised in August 2019.
Email correspondences between Li, Chan, and a staff member of crowdfunding platform GoFundMe suggested that Simon volunteered his personal bank account to receive the crowdfunding proceeds, which were about US$1.8 million (HK$14,080,266).
The trial continues on Wednesday.
When Lai’s trial began on December 18, 2023, he had already spent more than 1,000 days in custody after having had his bail revoked in December 2020. Three judges – handpicked by Hong Kong’s chief executive to hear national security cases – are presiding over Lai’s trial in the place of a jury, marking a departure from the city’s common law traditions.
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