Radio host pleads guilty to seditious intent and money laundering under national security law

Former online radio host Wan Yiu-sing, popularly known as ‘Giggs,’ pleaded guilty on Thursday to four counts, including seditious intent and money laundering.  

The 52-year-old Wan was arrested in November 2020 and accused of engaging in a crowdfunding campaign to pay for Hong Kong protesters in the 2019 protest to study in Taiwan.  

He launched the campaign when he worked at Channel D100 - a Hong Kong online radio - from February to November 2020 and then was charged with a case of “collusion with sedition” under the national security law, along with his female assistant.  

According to the police, the two were suspected of “bringing into hatred or contempt to the Chinese government and Hong Kong Special Administrative Region” by hosting a radio program named “A Thousand Fathers and Mothers: Taiwan Education Aid.”  

The radio program discussed the 2019 protest and called on the public to donate funds for the campaign for Hong Kong protesters to go to Taiwan.  

Except for the allegation, Wan was also accused of money laundering, along with the 51-year-old assistant Alice Lee Po-lai, suspected of illegally embezzling the funding raised for the campaign involving over HK$11 billion, which was found in the duo’s bank accounts.  

Wan pleaded guilty in the District Court in the morning on September 1 and will be in detention for the pending verdict after being in custody for almost two years since February 2021.