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Hong Kong media tycoon and Beijing critic Jimmy Lai was charged underneath a brand new nationwide safety legislation Friday, accused of colluding with international forces, the most recent pro-democracy determine focused underneath the laws.
Lai, 73, is probably the most high-profile determine charged underneath the sweeping legislation, which has focused the town’s pro-democracy motion however introduced a semblance of calm to the finance hub after months of often-violent protests.
The metropolis’s new nationwide safety unit charged him “with one count of ‘collusion with a foreign country or with external elements to endanger national security'”, police mentioned in a press release.
National safety offences carry a most sentence of life in jail.
The writer will seem in court docket on Saturday in relation to the nationwide safety cost, police mentioned.
Lai is the proprietor of Hong Kong’s best-selling Apple Daily, a well-liked tabloid that’s unashamedly pro-democracy and fiercely essential of authorities.
Police raided the newspaper’s headquarters in August and arrested a string of senior firm figures, together with Lai, on suspicion of “collusion with foreign forces” underneath the vaguely worded new legislation that Beijing imposed on Hong Kong.
Last week he was denied bail and remanded into custody till April after being charged with fraud, the most recent in a string of prosecutions introduced towards high-profile democracy campaigners.
He is about to use for bail on that cost on the High Court on Tuesday.
London expressed alarm after Lai was charged and mentioned it had raised his case with the authorities.
“The UK remains deeply concerned about the Hong Kong authorities’ focus on pursuing legal cases against pro-democracy figures like Jimmy Lai,” who has British citizenship, a spokesman for Prime Minister Boris Johnson informed reporters.
China’s clampdown on Hong Kong has dramatically accelerated because it imposed the safety legislation in June, with opposition politicians disqualified from the legislature and dozens of activists charged or investigated.
Last week three distinguished younger democracy campaigners — together with Joshua Wong — have been jailed for participating in final yr’s democracy protests.
On Friday Hong Kong teenager Tony Chung was discovered responsible of insulting China’s nationwide flag and illegal meeting.
The 19-year-old, who led a now-disbanded pro-democracy group, was convicted for throwing the Chinese flag to the bottom throughout scuffles outdoors Hong Kong’s legislature in May 2019.
Lai is barely the fourth particular person charged underneath the controversial nationwide safety laws.
The others are a 19-year-old activist for allegedly selling secession on social media, a person who rode his bike into cops at a protest and a person who repeatedly shouted pro-democracy slogans at police.
“Rabble-rouser”
During the police operation on Apple Daily, journalists streamed dramatic footage on Facebook as police raided its workplaces and led Lai away in handcuffs.
The newspaper’s entrance web page confirmed him being detained with the headline “Apple will fight on”.
In Chinese state media he’s routinely solid as a traitor, “black hand” and anti-China “rabble-rouser”.
Lai has lengthy mentioned he fears authorities wish to shutter his newspaper and had vowed to make use of the outlet to proceed talking out towards Beijing.
“I’m prepared for prison,” Lai informed AFP in an interview two weeks earlier than the safety legislation was imposed.
“I’m a troublemaker. I came here with nothing, the freedom of this place has given me everything. Maybe it’s time I paid back for that freedom by fighting for it,” he added.
The entrepreneur was born in mainland China however moved to the previous British colony at age 12.
Prosecutors have tried bringing circumstances towards him previously.
He was acquitted in September of intimidating a reporter from a rival pro-government newspaper.
The corruption watchdog additionally dropped a case towards him over political donations to pro-democracy supporters after 4 years of investigations.
Authorities deny focusing on Apple Daily or Lai and say police are merely implementing breaches of the legislation.
The crackdown has provoked outrage within the West and concern for tens of millions who final yr took to the streets to protest towards communist China’s tightening grip on the semi-autonomous metropolis.
After introducing the legislation in June, Beijing says stability and order have been restored and has dismissed the large crowds that protested as a international plot to destabilise China.
Critics say Beijing has shredded the freedoms and autonomy Hong Kong was promised forward of its handover by Britain in 1997.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV workers and is revealed from a syndicated feed.)
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