Hong Kong tycoon Jimmy Lai asked top Apple Daily executive to devise ways to encourage people to protest 2019 extradition bill, court hears
- Former associate publisher Chan Pui-man says Lai asked her to interview ‘heavyweights’ to discuss issues with now-scrapped extradition bill
- Cartoon portraying bill as ‘evil law’ was printed to encourage people to take to streets in 2019, Chan says
Chan Pui-man, a former associate publisher of the now-closed newspaper, on Tuesday said Lai called the situation “too quiet and too terrifying” two months after authorities proposed the bill.
She added Lai had asked her to interview “heavyweights” to discuss issues with the legislation, which could have allowed suspects to be transferred to mainland China for trial.
Chan, accused of conspiring to collude with foreign forces along with Lai, became a prosecution witness after she pleaded guilty to the national security charge in November 2022.
Lai, 76, is also facing one count of conspiring to publish seditious publications to incite hatred against authorities.
As the trial entered its 24th day on Tuesday, prosecutors presented Lai’s WhatsApp messages, Apple Daily’s articles, advertisements and publications from 2019, seeking to establish the media tycoon’s involvement in content positioned against the controversial bill proposed by the government in February that year.
Among them was a double-page cartoon featuring six Chinese characters saying “Against the evil law, down with Carrie Lam” above a handcuff labelled as “black jail” that was printed on the newspaper’s back page. Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor was the city’s leader at the time.