Hong Kong paralegal prosecution witness tells Jimmy Lai trial he lied in police interview to keep himself and friend in the clear
- Wayland Chan tells court he lied about links to ‘Fight for Freedom. Stand with Hong Kong’ group to protect himself and friend Andy Li
- Chan, a prosecution witness, also admits he lied about not being a SWHK member and that he had not taken part in any of its activities
Wayland Chan Tsz-wah, a paralegal, revealed more lies he had told to officers four years ago at the start of an investigation into the “Fight for Freedom. Stand with Hong Kong.” (SWHK) campaign group.
The organisation had called for international sanctions and other hostile acts against Hong Kong and mainland China.
West Kowloon Court heard Chan, who is appearing as a prosecution witness, claimed in an interview with police in October 2020 he was “not very close” to SWHK and that he “always had doubts about some of the purposes of [SWHK] or even its background”.
“So I may have made some disparaging or negative comments about them in private, with friends or with family,” Chan told officers.
The paralegal also said during the police interview that SWHK was an enormous but loose alliance and that it was difficult to know whether programmer-turned-activist Andy Li Yu-hin, a core SWHK member, was at the helm of the group.
