Hong Kong media mogul Jimmy Lai slapped with extra national security law charge, also accused of perverting course of justice over fugitive’s escape to Taiwan
- Apple Daily owner accused of colluding with foreign forces between July 2020 and January 2021
- Charge says Lai conspired with others including American Mark Simon
Prosecutors accused the 73-year-old founder of Next Digital of taking part in a separate conspiracy to collude with foreign forces between July 2020 and January 2021, on top of the same charge he is already facing.
Prosecutors argued that between July and August last year, Lai also implicated himself in another plot involving Chan Tsz-wah, a legal assistant, and activist Andy Li Yu-hin to arrange the latter’s escape.
Li was among 12 people detained in mainland China last year after the Chinese coastguard intercepted them as they tried to flee to Taiwan. Eleven faced charges over the 2019 unrest at the time of their escape, while Li had been arrested but not charged.
The new charges were laid on Friday at West Kowloon Court, where Lai also faced sentencing for another charge, in a separate courtroom, of taking part in an unauthorised assembly in 2019.
Details of the new national security charge were scant as they were not read out in court, although the charge said Lai had conspired with Mark Simon, an American who was Lai’s right-hand man, Li, Chan, and a man called Lau Cho-dick.
Media mogul Jimmy Lai jailed for 14 months over two 2019 Hong Kong marches
In that case, the prosecutors accused him of using his social media platform and the Apple Daily newspaper to call for sanctions.
On Friday, prosecutor Ivan Cheung urged Chief Magistrate Victor So Wai-tak, one of the unknown number of judges appointed by the chief executive to hear national security cases, to adjourn Lai’s case to June 15.
“Due to the newly added charges and more arising financial details, we would need to further investigate,” he said.
So adjourned the case after Lai’s defence lawyers raised no objection.
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Mass arrests of Hong Kong opposition lawmakers, activists under national security law
Lai has also been accused of defrauding Hong Kong Science and Technology Parks Corporation over the lease of his newspaper’s headquarters in Tseung Kwan O with two other senior staff, So was told.
Cheung told So that the case would be heard in the District Court, and the chief magistrate ordered Lai to be brought back before him on May 16 for the official transferral procedures.
Since he was charged on December 3, Lai has spent most of the time in jail after prosecutors successfully asked the court not to grant him bail.
At one point, Lai was out for about a week in December after a High Court judge released him under certain conditions, including house arrest, a HK$10 million cash bail and a ban on him to use his social media. Lai was locked up again after prosecutors successfully argued at the Court of Final Appeal that the lower court was wrong.
Li was returned to Hong Kong last month with eight others after serving time in jail on the mainland. The activist has also been charged with conspiracy to assist offenders, conspiracy to commit collusion with foreign forces under the national security law, and possession of ammunition without a licence.
