Hong Kong: police raid on pro-democracy newspaper "Apple Daily"
View of the premises of the "Apple daily" newspaper and one of its journalists (illustrative image).
© ISAAC LAWRENCE AFP
Text by: RFI Follow
3 min
In Hong Kong, a new police operation has just taken place against the "Apple Daily", the pro-democracy daily in the former British colony, which we know has long been in the sights of the authorities. main officials of the newspaper were arrested and police were deployed to the newspaper's offices early Thursday morning, June 17.
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The five main officials of the
Apple Daily
were arrested simultaneously at home, around 7 am this morning writes
our correspondent in Hong Kong,
Florence de Changy
.
They are suspected of having "
conspired to conspire with foreign forces
", a crime defined by article 29 of the new national security law in force in Hong Kong since June 30, 2020. Their respective residences were searched but for the moment none of the five arrested has been formally charged.
Document seizures
According to police sources quoted by the local press, these arrests are linked to articles published by the newspaper.
At the same time, between 100 and 200 policemen disembarked at the newspaper's headquarters in Tseung Kwan Ho, and blocked access.
They seized boxes of documents.
Last August, a similar operation took place.
Behind the
Apple Daily
it is obviously its founder who is targeted.
Jimmy Lai, the 73-year-old businessman has been one of the Chinese Communist Party's harshest critics.
He is being prosecuted for a series of crimes and has been in prison since last December.
Eighteen Million Hong Kong Dollars Freeze
In addition, eighteen million Hong Kong dollars (2 million euros) in assets held by the Apple Daily newspaper have been frozen under the drastic national security law, the territory police said. -autonomous.
Many Western countries believe that the takeover of Hong Kong by Beijing has definitively put an end to the principle of "one country, two systems" which had governed the handover of the former British colony by London in 1997. This principle should guarantee to the territory a very large autonomy until 2047.
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To read also: Hong Kong: activist Agnes Chow evokes her "painful stay" in prison
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