Key prosecution witness hoped Jimmy Lai’s assistant would help him escape Hong Kong, trial told

Paralegal Wayland Chan says that after his first arrest in October 2020 he believed he could still convince police he was not affiliated with Lai or his associates
Chan says he was hopeful Lai’s right-hand man Mark Simon would be able to ‘find some way’ to get him out of Hong Kong after police released him on bail

Hong Kong courts

Brian Wong

Published: 4:13pm, 3 May 2024

Why you can trust SCMP

A key prosecution witness in Jimmy Lai Chee-ying’s national security trial has said he harboured hopes that the tycoon’s assistant would help him escape from Hong Kong after his arrest by police four years ago.

Paralegal Wayland Chan Tsz-wah told West Kowloon Court on Friday he believed that after his first arrest in October 2020, he could still convince police that he was not affiliated with Lai or his associates.

Chan said he had thought that Lai’s right-hand man Mark Simon, who previously worked for US naval intelligence, would be able to “find some way” to get him out of Hong Kong after police released him on bail.

“I thought that luck was still on my side,” the defendant turned witness added.

He also denied fabricating his court testimony to suit prosecutors’ needs in exchange for a more lenient sentence on a count of conspiracy to collude with foreign forces, to which he pleaded guilty in August 2021.

Chan earlier revealed he had linked up Lai to activists of the “Fight for Freedom, Stand with Hong Kong” (SWHK) campaign group to facilitate the tycoon’s political agenda and trigger the nation’s “implosion” through lobbying for economic sanctions and other hostile acts abroad.

The 76-year-old Apple Daily founder has denied two conspiracy charges of collusion with foreign forces and a third of conspiracy to print and distribute seditious publications.

Chan was first arrested for allegedly assisting the thwarted escape bid of activist Andy Li Yu-hin, a core SWHK member who was caught with 11 others in mainland Chinese waters while en route to Taiwan by boat in August 2020.

Wayland Chan has said he was hopeful Lai’s right-hand man Mark Simon (pictured) would be able to ‘find some ways’ to get him out of Hong Kong. Photo: May Tse

He was arrested again for alleged collusion in February 2021 before agreeing to help the prosecution the following month.

Chan said he made numerous false claims in a cautioned interview in October 2020 to distance himself from the tycoon’s anti-China conspiracy.

Lai’s defence counsel Marc Corlett drew the court’s attention to 14 categories of incriminating remarks Chan previously made in court and suggested they were nowhere to be found in the transcripts of the witness’s video interviews with police in April 2021.

Chan insisted some of those claims were corroborated by the written records, but agreed he did not repeat them in court with the same wording he previously used.

Chan acknowledged he was not accusing Lai of supporting the “valiant” camp during the 2019 anti-government protests when he said in the interviews that the mogul wanted every political thought to blossom, be it supportive of Hong Kong independence or the status quo.

The witness also agreed he had never mentioned to police that he had ever told Lai anything about Li or SWHK.

Corlett suggested many of Chan’s assertions were lies made up in the witness stand.

The lawyer referred to Chan’s remarks recorded in October 2020, where he claimed he hated people who used lies to “benefit themselves”.

“Isn’t that what you’ve done yourself when you made up a number of statements for the first time to try to benefit yourself at sentencing?” Corlett asked.

But the paralegal insisted he was telling the truth exactly because he loathed dishonesty.

He also said his memory of past events might improve over time.

The prosecution will put their final questions to Chan when the trial resumes on Monday.

Post