Hong Kong pro-democracy activists fear that Apple Daily newspaper founder Jimmy Lai will be extradited to face trial before Communist Party-controlled judges in mainland China — the much-feared scenario that sparked last year’s months-long anti-government protests and left hopes the city will be allowed to maintain its freedoms in tatters.

Authorities on Friday charged the longtime critic of China’s one-party regime with colluding with foreign forces to endanger national security, a crime punishable by life imprisonment under Beijing’s recently imposed national security law. The law stipulates that a suspect may be tried before mainland courts “under three specific circumstances,” including when the case involves foreign forces.

The new allegations against Lai, now in custody pending trial on a separate charge of conspiracy to defraud scheduled for mid-April, will be heard in West Kowloon Magistrates’ Courts on Saturday morning.

The security law, introduced by Beijing in late June, also enables Hong Kong authorities or the Office for Safeguarding National Security in Hong Kong to ask the central government to rule on whether a suspect should stand trial in Hong Kong or on the mainland.

It was clear that Hong Kong authorities were gearing up to make more serious charges against Lai, 73, when the veteran campaigner was denied bail pending his fraud case, said Jeremy Tam, one of the pro-democracy lawmakers who resigned last month to protest Beijing’s interference in the city’s legislature.

“Does [the Hong Kong government] want to jail him for life, or make use of the national security law to send him to China?” he said, adding that through this “move of terror,” Hong Kong authorities were trying to further stifle the city’s dissenting voices.

Veteran China watcher Johnny Lau said the collusion charge was part of the Chinese Communist Party’s plan all along because Beijing has always viewed Lai as Washington’s proxy.

“Beijing’s suppression of dissidents in Hong Kong will only continue to strengthen,” he said.

Another former lawmaker Andrew Wan said he feared police will use the new charge as an excuse to raid Apple Daily’s headquarters a second time, exacerbating declining press freedom in Hong Kong.

The city plunged to 80th place in the 2020 World Press Freedom Index published by Reporters Without Borders in April, from 18th in 2002.

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