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Hong Kong tycoon Jimmy Lai funded campaign by opposition group aimed at gaining global support for 2019 protests, court hears during national security trial
- Prosecutors alleged Lai was the mastermind and anonymous financier of the ‘Fight for Freedom, Stand with Hong Kong’ group
- Detained activist Andy Li names two private companies which the tycoon reportedly used to help settle payments to various overseas newspaper outlets in 2019
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Hong Kong media tycoon Jimmy Lai Chee-ying contributed HK$1.56 million (US$199,400) to an advertising campaign designed to garner international support for anti-government protests in the city five years ago, a court heard on Wednesday during the mogul’s national security trial.
Detained activist Andy Li Yu-hin, the most prominent figure among 12 Hong Kong fugitives arrested by mainland Chinese authorities in 2020, took the witness stand to testify for the prosecution after confirming his guilty plea to a charge of conspiracy to collude with foreign forces.
He did not specify Lai’s role in his testimony at West Kowloon Court, but named two private companies which the tycoon reportedly used to help him settle payments to various overseas newspaper outlets for the initiative in June 2019.
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Lai, 76, has denied two conspiracy charges of collusion with foreign forces under the Beijing-decreed national security law, and a third count of conspiracy to print and distribute seditious publications under colonial-era legislation.
Prosecutors alleged in their opening remarks that Lai was the mastermind and anonymous financier of the “Fight for Freedom, Stand with Hong Kong” group, which had attracted sanctions and trade restrictions from Western countries.
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