Bail extended for Apple Daily founder Jimmy Lai, media executives and activist Agnes Chow

蘋果日報 2020/09/04 13:01


Hong Kong police have extended bail for high-profile newspaper and activist figures arrested last month under offenses including national security charges, including Apple Daily founder Jimmy Lai and pro-democracy activist Agnes Chow.
Lai attended a regular check-in at Mong Kok police station on Tuesday and secured a bail extension after being held for about six hours.
The media tycoon was arrested on Aug. 10 along with four top executives at Next Digital, the publisher of Apple Daily. More than 200 police officers raided the newspaper’s headquarters on the same day and took away boxes of material.
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Police also arrested Chow and another activist Andy Li, journalist Wilson Li and two of Lai’s sons. All were subsequently released on bail and ordered to report to a police station on Tuesday.
Next Digital chief executive Cheung Kim-hung, who was also granted a bail extension, told reporters that he would keep calm and take his situation in stride.
Chow was detained at Tai Po police station on Tuesday for over three hours. She said upon her release that police wanted to take her testimony again.
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Her next police appointment was on Dec. 2, which would be the eve of her birthday, she added.
“I don’t know if I can get out safely that day, or whether I will be charged and taken into custody immediately. I hope I can get another bail extension without incident and spend my 24th birthday at home,” Chow told reporters.
Police on Aug. 10 also searched the Hong Kong offices of Japanese financial newspaper Nikkei, according to a report by Agence France-Presse. It remains unclear what evidence, if any, was seized during that operation.
Chow said she was arrested for “inciting secession” under the city’s national security law, in relation to a pro-democracy advertisement published by Nikkei last year.
“How could an ad published in 2019 contravene the national security law, which took effect in 2020? We still don’t know. If the ad becomes evidence of my violating the national security law, then it shows how ridiculous the situation is,” she said.
Nikkei’s situation showed that international media were not exempt from the effects of the national security law, Chow said, adding that the Hong Kong government was seeking to limit press freedom and had politicized the work visas of foreign correspondents.
Asked about the 12 people who were caught by mainland Chinese authorities while fleeing to Taiwan, Chow urged the public to continue paying attention to their plight.
“As Beijing enforces the national security law, I am far from being the only one who is oppressed,” she said.
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