Hong Kong’s Jimmy Lai admits Pence and Pompeo ‘sort of’ lobbied

Hong Kong’s Jimmy Lai Chee-ying entered his sixth day of oral testimony in the West Kowloon Court on Thursday; judges examined his meetings with prosecution witnesses regarding national security charges against the former media mogul.

Lai, 77, has pleaded not guilty to two charges of conspiring to collude with foreign forces under the 2020 security law and a third charge of conspiring to print and distribute seditious publications in violation of colonial-era laws.

On Wednesday, the fifth day of the former emperor’s oral testimony, the court read an Apple Daily article that said Lai, in a meeting with the former secretary, suggested US impose sanctions on Chinese and Hong Kong officials who suppressed the 2019 protest movement. State by Mike Pompeo.

Lai said there was “no reason to doubt the accuracy” of the article but did not recall mentioning sanctions at the meeting.

His lawyers spent the rest of Wednesday’s hearing negotiating between Lai and deputy attorney Wayland Chan Tsz-wah, who became a prosecution witness after pleading guilty to colluding with foreign powers.

Lai said his impression of Chan was that he was a “young man living on the frontier” and a “conservative” and that he first met him with the intention of conveying to “violent people at the front” that their actions were damaging to anti-country. -government action.

The court continued to examine Lai’s third meeting with Chan on Thursday.