National security law: Hong Kong media mogul Jimmy Lai, activist Agnes Chow among those arrested as police spend nearly nine hours searching Apple Daily offices
- Founder of tabloid-style newspaper detained in most high-profile police operation under national security law since it was imposed by Beijing
- Police also detain former student activist Agnes Chow and two others in another sweep in the afternoon
Key points:
- Police arrest Jimmy Lai, his two sons and four senior staff over alleged violations of the national security law and fraud
- Cheung Kim-hung, CEO of Next Digital, Apple Daily’s parent company, and CFO and COO Chow Tat-kuen among those arrested
- Former student activist Agnes Chow and two others arrested in another sweep in the afternoon
- Jimmy Lai’s top aide, Mark Simon, who was not in the city, sought by Hong Kong police
- Soon after the arrests, more than 200 police officers raid the newspaper’s headquarters in Tseung Kwan O
- Senior Superintendent Steve Li Kwai-wah, from the new national security unit, pledges not to search the paper’s editorial department or disrupt its operations
- Head of the Hong Kong Journalists Association calls search of press outlet on such a large scale unprecedented
Hong Kong’s Apple Daily founder Jimmy Lai Chee-ying was arrested on Monday for alleged collusion with foreign forces in the most high-profile police operation under the national security law since it was imposed by Beijing, along with six others linked to the tabloid-style newspaper.
Police also detained former student activist Agnes Chow Ting and two others accused of the same crime in another sweep in the afternoon.
The day of dramatic arrests began just after 7am when officers picked up Lai at his home in Ho Man Tin, followed by the arrests of two of the media mogul’s sons and other associates of Next Digital, the newspaper’s parent company.
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Hong Kong media mogul and opposition activist Jimmy Lai arrested under national security law
Officers later maintained that they did not take away or pry into journalists’ work and that those arrested were not being held for any crime related to the media. Police left the building with stacks of documents in blue plastic boxes.
