Hong Kong police on Friday pressed charges against Apple Daily publisher Cheung Kim-hung and editor-in-chief Ryan Law under the national security offense of alleged conspiracy to collude with external forces and would bring the pair to court on Saturday morning.

The case of Cheung and Law would be mentioned at West Kowloon Magistrates’ Courts, police said.

They are being charged with “collusion with a foreign country or with external elements to endanger national security” under Article 29 of Hong Kong’s national security law.

This will mark the city’s first prosecution of journalists for national security breaches. The case is premised on some 30 as-yet unidentified articles published by Apple Daily since 2019. The national security law imposed by Beijing on Hong Kong was not passed until June 30, 2020.

Cheung is also chief executive of Next Digital, the parent company of Apple Daily. Police went to the homes of Cheung, Law and another three senior executives, associate publisher Chan Pui-man, digital director Cheung Chi-wai and Next Digital chief operating officer Royston Chow, around 6 a.m. on Thursday, arrested them and searched their residences. The five were held overnight at police stations in Tseung Kwan O, Chai Wan and Cheung Sha Wan.

Hundreds of police officers overran the media outlet’s office on the same day to conduct a search operation over alleged violation of the national security law by publishing the articles, which were said to have called for sanctions on the Beijing and Hong Kong governments.

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