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Hong Kong activist collaborated with 3 overseas individuals to have Japanese sanctions imposed on city and China, Jimmy Lai trial told
- Lobbyist Andy Li says he worked with Japanese legislator, a political activist, and a financier, both based in Britain, to promote sanctions by country’s Diet
- Li tells court he and other activists helped set up communication between Japanese politician and the London financier to help sanctions bid
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An activist alleged to have been backed by media mogul Jimmy Lai Chee-ying collaborated with three people from overseas to trigger Japanese sanctions against Hong Kong and mainland Chinese officials after the Beijing-imposed national security law came into force four years ago, a court has heard.
West Kowloon Court on Monday was told programmer turned lobbyist Andy Li Yu-hin joined forces with former Japanese legislator Shiori Kanno, British political activist Luke de Pulford and Bill Browder, a London-based financier, in a bid to get sanctions legislation through the Japanese Diet.
The court heard many of the legislative body’s members were critical about what was said to be Hong Kong’s shrinking freedoms.
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Messaging logs showed de Pulford, the founder of the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China (IPAC), discussed with Li how they could enlist Browder as Kanno drummed up support for an August 2020 bill to punish human rights abuses in overseas jurisdictions, particularly Hong Kong.
The British activist said Browder, who he described as a “dynamo” with “a huge amount of money”, was excited about Kanno’s work and was keen to help.
Li, who appeared as a prosecution witness, said he and other Japan-based activists had assisted communication between Kanno and Browder and considered when and how the bill could best be put to the Diet.
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