Jimmy Lai denies concealing plan to meet with US officials when he applied to lift travel ban in 2020
Hong Kong Free Press
Jailed media tycoon Jimmy Lai has denied concealing a plan to meet American officials in mid-2020 when he applied to the court to lift a travel ban at that time, as prosecutors raised questions about his credibility during his high-profile national security trial.
Lai, 77, told the court on Monday that he thought it was “not a big deal” to meet with US officials and senators before Beijing imposed a national security law in June 2020, following large-scale pro-democracy protests and unrest in the previous year.
The tycoon’s trial resumed on Monday after the Lunar New Year holiday as he took the witness stand for the 34th day.
Lai has pleaded not guilty to two charges of conspiring to collude with foreign forces under the Beijing-imposed security law and a third count of conspiring to publish seditious materials under a colonial-era legislation. He could be jailed for life if convicted.
Prosecutors on Monday accused Lai of using the birth of his granddaughter in May 2020 as a “cover-up” for a planned trip to the US to meet with American officials, including then vice-president Mike Pence. The trip did not take place eventually.
The Apple Daily founder was subject to a travel ban at that time as part of the bail conditions resulting from a criminal intimidation charge he was facing – which he was later found not guilty. He applied to the court in June 2020 to temporarily lift the travel ban, for reasons including visiting his daughter Jade’s newborn baby in New York, but to no avail.
‘Deliberately concealed’
Prosecutor Anthony Chau suggested to the tycoon that he had “deliberately concealed” his plan to meet US officials when he asked the court to lift his travel restriction.
Chau drew the court’s attention to WhatsApp messaging records from May 2020 between Lai and his aide Mark Simon, in which the pair discussed the prospect of visiting the US and meeting with personnel from the US State Department and the national security committee there.
“First I’ve [got] to get my granddaughter’s birth certificate to make my application legitimate. I hope my daughter will give birth in the next few days so I can be sure of the date of my trip to US. Thanks, Jimmy,” Lai wrote to Simon on May 22, 2020.
In another message, dated May 27, 2020, Lai told Simon that Jade gave birth the day before and he should get the birth certificate soon. “I should be able to have lunch at around June 20 or so… Hopefully see the big boss, too. Thanks, Jimmy,” he wrote in that message.
Judge Alex Lee, who rejected the tycoon’s bid to lift the travel ban in June 2020, said Lai’s non-disclosure of the planned meeting with US officials could imply that what he told the court previously “may not be genuine.”
In court, Lai said he was referring to Pence as the “big boss” because he was not expecting to meet Donald Trump, who was then president.
But he maintained that seeing his granddaughter was his priority and rejected suggestions that he was using it as an excuse to go to the US to meet with officials.
“I had to go to see her… for the convenience I went to other meetings [but it] doesn’t mean that I used her as an excuse,” he said in court.
‘No big deal’
Asked why he did not include his planned meeting with US officials in his bid to the court, he said: “My main reason is to see my granddaughter, if there’s enough reason for me to apply to travel, why should I say more?”
He also said that there was nothing illegal to meet with US officials before the imposition of the security law and that he was “carefree” about it.
“At that time, to visit US officials and congressmen was not a big deal… that’s not a time that you would consider that to be collusion with foreign power,” he told the court.
“Seeing Mike Pence was not a big deal?” asked Judge Lee. “Not legally,” Lai said in response.
In another exchange of WhatsApp messages, dated June 23, 2020, Simon told Lai that he had “put forward only [Hong Kong] officials” to be considered by the US national security committee as sanction targets.
The court previously heard Lai, Simon, and several US establishment figures had floated names of Hong Kong officials to be hit by US sanctions for violating human rights in Hong Kong via email correspondence before the enactment of the security law on June 30, 2020.
In court, Lai said Simon was acting on his own initiative, saying that he had no full knowledge of the list of Hong Kong officials related to the promulgation of the security law.
He also agreed that he did not ask Simon to withdraw the sanction list after the enactment of the security law.
However, his attempt to explain himself was rejected by the judges, who told Lai to stay focused with answering questions raised by the prosecution.
The trial continues on Tuesday.
Beijing inserted national security legislation directly into Hong Kong’s mini-constitution in June 2020 following a year of pro-democracy protests and unrest. It criminalised subversion, secession, collusion with foreign forces and terrorist acts – broadly defined to include disruption to transport and other infrastructure. The move gave police sweeping new powers and led to hundreds of arrests amid new legal precedents, while dozens of civil society groups disappeared. The authorities say it restored stability and peace to the city, rejecting criticism from trade partners, the UN and NGOs.
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