The international legal team for the imprisoned media mogul Jimmy Lai, who is on trial for national security offences in Hong Kong, has filed an urgent appeal with the United Nations special rapporteur on torture regarding one of the key prosecution witnesses in Lai’s trial.
Lai’s lawyers say there is “credible evidence” that Andy Li, a 33-year-old former pro-democracy activist, was tortured while in prison in mainland China before he confessed to allegedly conspiring with Lai to collude with foreign forces. That is one of the two national security law offences that Lai has been charged with, along with a colonial-era sedition offence. Lai has pleaded not guilty to all charges.
If convicted, which his supporters and international legal experts say is a foregone conclusion given the environment for national security cases in Hong Kong, Lai, 76, faces spending the rest of his life behind bars.
Li was one of 12 Hong Kong activists who were caught trying to flee by speedboat to Taiwan in August 2020. He was held in a prison in Shenzhen, a city in southern China, for seven months, for illegal border crossing. In March 2021, he was returned to Hong Kong, where he was charged with conspiring with foreign powers. In August of that year, he pleaded guilty in charges that named Lai as a co-conspirator, along with Lai’s aide Mark Simon and the activist Finn Lau, who is now based in the UK.
Li is now a key prosecution witness in Lai’s high-profile trial, and will be sentenced after it finishes.
While detained in China, the “Hong Kong 12” were denied the lawyers of their choice and there were reports of mistreatment.
They were reportedly kept in solitary confinement with the lights always on. In December, the Washington Post reported that Li’s treatment in China was thought to have been particularly brutal, with screams heard “consistently” from his cell.
The UN’s independent expert on human rights defenders said in 2021 that there were “countless reports” of treatment that “may amount to torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment” in Chinese prisons.
Li is now being held in a psychiatric facility in Hong Kong, something which Lai’s international legal team says “raises additional grave concerns”. He is expected to appear as a witness within the next few weeks.
Caoilfhionn Gallagher KC, who leads Lai’s international legal team, said: “There is credible evidence that Andy Li was subjected to torture, inhuman and degrading treatment, and that his testimony has been coerced. Despite this, the prosecution in Jimmy Lai’s show trial has made clear that they are relying upon Andy Li as a key witness … They must now answer to the United Nations. Evidence which is the fruit of torture and coercion should never be relied upon.”
Lai’s international legal team manages the international profile of his case and is not connected to his local defence counsel, which is acting for him in the proceedings in Hong Kong. The defence arguments are yet to be heard in court.
