[Explanation] On August 10, 9 people including the founder of Next Media, Li Zhiying, were arrested by the Hong Kong police on suspicion of violating the Hong Kong National Security Law and conspiring to commit fraud.
[Explanation] At 7 am on the 10th, police officers arrived at Li Zhiying's apartment on Kadoorie Road in Ho Man Tin to search for evidence. During this period, a lawyer entered the mansion. At about 9:30, Li Zhiying put on handcuffs backhanded and was taken out of the apartment by the police and taken to the Kowloon City Police Station in a police seven-person car for investigation.
[Explanation] At 9:45 in the morning, hundreds of uniformed police officers arrived at the Next Media Building to conduct searches and evidence collection operations. Li Guihua, Senior Superintendent of the National Security Division of the Hong Kong Police Force, said that the police had shown the court warrant to the relevant person in charge for inspection, and said that the search process went smoothly and hoped to complete the work as soon as possible without hindering the operation of media organizations.
[Concurrent] Li Guihua, Senior Superintendent of the National Security Division of the Hong Kong Police Force
At about 9:45 this morning, we and colleagues from the Criminal Department and from the Military Uniform Department carried out a search and seizure of evidence with court warrants. The difference in peacetime is that I will tell you about the procedure first. First, we will receive our warrant and show it to the person in charge at the time, because this time we are (searching) a media organization and we are worried that there are some in it. News materials may be involved, so my superintendent and I have conducted a preliminary review. The main purpose is to see which units and departments we can’t search. For example, editors, journalists, etc., may be very important. When there is news material, we will not search there. After the review, we then assign work to our colleagues for processing. Now our warrant is in it so that this company or other legal representatives can use it for inspection. Now I can say that our search process is smooth and we hope to complete it as soon as possible, so as not to hinder the operation of media organizations.
Reporter Chen Anyi Zhu Aili reports from Hong Kong
Editor in charge: [Li Yuxin]