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Jimmy Lai’s emails with US officials floated sanction targets, trial hears

Jimmy Lai’s emails with US officials floated sanction targets, trial hears


Jailed media tycoon Jimmy Lai’s email exchanges with US officials in 2020 showed the group discussed potential targets of US sanctions before Beijing imposed a national security law on Hong Kong, the tycoon’s national security trial has heard.

Jimmy Lai
Jimmy Lai in 2020. Photo: HKFP.

Lai, 77, told the court on Friday that he only had a “vague” understanding of the Magnitsky Act and denied that he was asking Washington to impose sanctions on Hong Kong through his correspondences with former US officials.

The Apple Daily founder, who was giving evidence for the 33rd day on Friday, has pleaded not guilty to two counts 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.

Prosecutors grilled the tycoon about his email correspondence with aide Mark Simon and several US establishment figures, including ex-deputy secretary of defence Paul Wolfowitz, ex-army general Jack Keane, and former department of state adviser Christian Whiton.

In an April 2020 email thread started by Wolfowitz, the former US official asked “[has] anything been done about Magnitsky Act” in response to Hong Kong, describing Beijing’s clampdown on the city’s pro-democracy movement.

The US passed the Magnitsky Act in 2012, which enabled it to punish Russian officials responsible for the death of tax lawyer Sergei Magnitsky. A Global Magnitsky Act was passed in 2016, expanding the US administration’s power to sanction foreign individuals responsible for human rights violations.

In court, Lai said he did not understand the details of the US legislation and only “roughly” knew that it was related to sanctions.

Police watch over people queuing outside the West Kowloon Law Courts Building on November 19, 2024, ahead of the national security trial of Jimmy Lai resuming the following day. Photo: Kyle Lam/HKFP.
Police watch over people queuing outside the West Kowloon Law Courts Building on November 19, 2024, ahead of the national security trial of Jimmy Lai resuming the following day. File photo: Kyle Lam/HKFP.

Prosecutor Anthony Chau drew the tycoon’s attention to Simon’s reply to Wolfowitz’s email, in which Simon said he had talked to “senator staff” and that “until we actually see some convictions or some actual changes, nothing will happen.”

“With all that said I know the [US National Security Committee] does have a pretty good idea of who they would not object to being hit with the Magnitsky Act,” Simon added in his email.

The tycoon rejected the prosecutor’s suggestion that Simon was “very close” to the US national security committee.

Judge Alex Lee asked Lai whether Simon was acting on Lai’s behalf when he met with US national security committee personnel.

“Yes he was working on my behalf, but the connection was his own connection, not [mine],” Lai said. “He was acting [on] his own but for my benefits, for my information.”

Mark Simon, media mogul Jimmy Lai's aide. Photo: Mark Simon, via X.
Mark Simon, media mogul Jimmy Lai’s aide. Photo: Mark Simon, via X.

Lai also said Wolfowitz’s email was merely conveying his concern about Hong Kong in 2019 as the city was in “turmoil,” referring to the large-scale pro-democracy protests and unrest that year.

In his own response to Wolfowitz’s email in April 2020, the tycoon said: “America is our only saviour left now. If America doesn’t act we will be done very soon.”

In court, Lai denied that he wanted the US to impose sanctions, and maintained that he was merely pleading for the country to act “in general” to respond to Beijing’s national security law.

In another emailed response in the thread, ex-US department of state advisor Whiton suggested that Luo Huining, then Beijing’s top official in Hong Kong, could be sanctioned under the Magnitsky Act for engaging in “gross violations of fundamentally recognised human rights.” Lai replied with: “Great idea!”

He told the court that his response was merely “an encouragement” instead of an endorsement of Whiton’s proposal.

In a separate email thread, Wolfowitz suggested that sanctioning Hong Kong judge Kowk Wai-kin would be more “effective” and “have a more direct impact of the behaviour” of the city’s courts. Lai did not respond to Wolfowitz’s email.

Headquarters of Next Digital
Headquarters of Next Digital. File photo: Kyle Lam/HKFP.

In another email, ex-US army general Keane praised Lai for an interview he did with American news outlet Fox News in May 2020, in which the tycoon called on Washington to sanction the children of mainland Chinese officials and freeze their “corrupt money.”

In court, Lai denied the prosecutor’s suggestion that he gave interviews to US news outlets to attract the attention of figures such as Keane, maintaining that he was only trying to draw international attention to Beijing’s “encroachment” on Hong Kong’s freedoms.

The trial will resume in February after the Lunar New Year.

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.

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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