Police refuse Jimmy Lai's request to 'charge me immediately', for organising Occupy protest
Media tycoon and activist both arrested for roles in Occupy protests, then allowed to walk free
Next Media founder Jimmy Lai Chee-ying was arrested for his role in Occupy Central protests but allowed to go free yesterday after reporting to police for a pre-scheduled meeting.
Lai was arrested for both organising and participating in an unauthorised assembly, after spending around 21/2 hours at police headquarters in Wan Chai in the morning.
He said police refused his request to lay charges immediately, "but they said they had the right to ask me to report back any time".
Lai described the atmosphere as good. He said he was shown news footage of his participation in Occupy protests, just as police have done with other leaders of the 79-day civil disobedience movement, which ended last month, when they have reported for pre-scheduled arrests.
Next Media publisher and CEO Ip Yut-kin and Apple Daily associate deputy publisher Cheung Kim-hung waited for Lai while he was with police.
They said the arrest would not have any effect on the operations of Next Media since Lai had resigned as the newspaper's publisher last month.
Ip also said the company was undeterred by recent attacks on its head office in Tseung Kwan O and that security measures had not been stepped up.