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