Hong Kong Police have arrested five media executives owned by tycoon Jimmy Lai on Thursday on suspicion of conspiring with foreign agents who violate national security law.
Among those arrested are the editor-in-chief of the newspaper 'Apple Daily', Ryan Law, and the CEO of Next Digital, Cheung Kim-hung, according to 'The South China Morning Post'.
Following these arrests, Police Chief John Lee has accused "the tabloid press of using news coverage as a tool to undermine security." To justify the arrest, the authority has cited more than 30 articles from the newspaper 'Apple Daily' , most of them comments or opinion pieces, in which sanctions were requested against Hong Kong and China.
Likewise, the Police have searched the homes of those involved as well as the headquarters of the newspaper with 500 agents for five hours. Also, company assets have been frozen, according to the newspaper itself on its website.
Hong Kong detained more than 10,000 people in the framework of anti-government protests that took place in 2019. The riots led to an internationally criticized national security law passed in June 2020 by the Chinese Parliament. Among these is Lai, who is serving a prison sentence in relation to his participation in these protests and for other crimes.
