Activist Li says he helped arrange overseas politicians to come and monitor 2019 elections

Activist Andy Li Yu-hin was invited by paralegal Chan Tsz-wah to a meeting with US Republican Senator Rick Scott in September 2019 while a UK observation delegation was invited to come to Hong Kong and monitor the District Council elections the same year, the court heard on the 50th day of Jimmy Lai Chee-ying’s trial.

Testifying at West Kowloon Court on Thursday, Li – a member of pro-democracy group Hong Kong Story – said he first knew Lai’s assistant Mark Simon via a WhatsApp group set up by Chan on September 29.

He later met Simon in person when meeting with Scott at Mid-Levels that night and noted that they didn’t have any further communication despite self-introduction at the very beginning. The senator’s assistant Scott Sciretta and Alan Brinker from the US consulate was to attend the meeting that night.

“[Chan believed] it would be more effective if they let me do the lobbying,” Li said. He added that Chan was impressed by him as he had just returned from a visit to the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.

Li continued he decided to focus on international lobbying after discussing it with Chan, saying that they had finished the newspaper advertisement campaigns in the UK and member countries of G20 at the time.

Chan also let Li decided on whether or not to cooperate with French organization Le Comité pour la Liberté à Hong-Kong. “I didn’t know any French at the time and I only knew it was an organization that supported freedoms and democracy in Hong Kong.”

Chan reminded Li not to mention issues related to finance as Scott was thinking about running for the 2024 presidential race at the time and Chan hoped Scott wouldn’t breach certain rules that candidates had to abide by.

Li also told the court that Hong Kong Story and the “Fight for Freedom, Stand with Hong Kong” (SWHK) group organized an independent observation mission to monitor the District Council elections on November 24 that year.

The idea first stemmed from the “laam chau baa” team, led by UK-based activist Finn Lau Cho-dik, which said on Telegram that Lord David Alton wanted to watch the elections and hoped to be invited by local groups.

Hong Kong Story then invited more overseas politicians to come, including Luke de Pulford from the UK, Vicki Dunne from Australia, and others from Sweden and Denmark. The members would delete all relevant messages on their phones as they ruled that they wouldn’t be welcomed by the government given the political atmosphere at the time.

They also worried that they would be listed as “persona non grata” and barred from leaving Hong Kong. The team therefore had a backup plan that if they lost contact with the members after a certain period of time, they would inform their respective consul, consulates and the media.

Li added that he had met with de Pulford and Alton in hotel W Hong Kong alongside Democratic Party’s founder Martin Lee Chu-ming and former Chief Secretary Anson Chan Fang On-sang after the elections had ended.

During the meeting, they discussed Hong Kong’s worsening democracy while de Pulford and Alton said they would draw more attention on the SAR’s situation in the UK with their capabilities.