Hong kong

Hong Kong media mogul and pro-democracy activist Jimmy Lai will remain in jail after the city’s highest court sided with authorities to keep him in jail pending further legal arguments, in the first real legal challenge to the national security law. On Tuesday, the court of final appeal gave the department of justice leave to appeal against a high court decision to grant Lai bail while he awaits trial on foreign collusion charges under the national security law. The 73-year-old is the highest-profile figure among more than 100 people arrested on suspicion of breaching the law, which broadly criminalise acts as sedition, secession, foreign collusion and terrorism. Lai is facing trial for alleged foreign collusion, as well as separate charges of fraud and pro-democracy protest-related activity. He was first jailed on 3 December, then released to strict house arrest by the high court 20 days later, after the judge, Alex Lee, found he was not a flight risk. Lai was released from jail … [Read more...] about Hong Kong media tycoon Jimmy Lai to remain in jail as landmark security law case continues

The media tycoon and pro-democracy activist Jimmy Lai has been granted bail by Hong Kong’s high court, after 20 days in jail on charges of fraud and foreign collusion. Lai was released into house arrest on a HK$10m (£960,000) bond on Wednesday afternoon. He was ordered to surrender all travel documents and banned from speaking to the press, making public statements, using social media, meeting foreign officials and “colluding with foreign forces”, local media reported. Lai had been in jail since 3 December, when he was charged with fraud and denied bail. Ten days later, he was denied bail again, on charges of foreign collusion under the national security law. On Wednesday the high court, including one judge known to have been appointed to oversee national security cases, ordered Lai’s release, albeit under the strict conditions. Within hours the department of justice said it was applying for leave to appeal, RTHK reported. The fraud charges – laid … [Read more...] about Hong Kong pro-democracy activist Jimmy Lai granted bail

Jimmy Lai, the Hong Kong media tycoon and pro-democracy activist whose Apple Daily newspaper was raided by police earlier this year, has been denied bail after being charged with fraud. Lai – the owner of Hong Kong tabloid and founder of Next Digital Media – will be held on remand until his next court date in April next year. Lai has been one of the loudest pro-democracy voices in Hong Kong, amid a worsening crackdown on dissent. On Wednesday Joshua Wong, Agnes Chow, and Ivan Lam were jailed for their activism. Lai and two Next Digital Media executives were charged on Wednesday night when making a regular reporting appearance to police over their previous arrests under the national security law. The executives, chief operating officer Royston Chow Tat-kuen, and chief administrative officer Wong Wai-keung, were released on bail on Thursday. The trio are accused of breaching land-lease terms by misusing Next Digital’s office space in Tseung Kwan O for other purposes. … [Read more...] about Hong Kong pro-democracy figure Jimmy Lai denied bail on fraud charge

The Hong Kong media mogul and pro-democracy activist Jimmy Lai has been returned to jail after the city’s highest court ruled in favour of prosecutors’ request for leave to appeal against his already highly restrictive bail order. The decision will keep the 76-year-old in jail until at least February, even though he has not been accused of a violent crime and is not considered a flight risk. Lai was initially jailed on 3 December, and was released to house arrest by the high court 20 days later on HK$10m bail (£960,000). He was ordered not to speak publicly or use social media. Hong Kong’s justice department sought leave to appeal against the decision at the time but was refused by the high court and so took its case directly to the court of final appeal (CFA), local media reported. On Thursday a panel of three CFA judges including the outgoing chief justice, Geoffrey Ma, sided with the prosecutors and remanded Lai until the next scheduled court hearing on 1 … [Read more...] about Hong Kong activist Jimmy Lai returned to jail until at least February

Lam Wing-kee leans forward in his chair, answering quickly and sharply to issue a warning to the people of his new home, Taiwan. “Be ready now,” he says. “We should be more alert as citizens, we should get ready,” says the 64-year-old Hongkonger. “If they can take Hong Kong back, the next place, I feel, is Taiwan.” It’s late in central Taipei at Causeway Bay Books mark II (the previous one in Hong Kong having had to be abandoned). On the 10th floor of a nondescript building, Lam, a wiry, grey-haired bookseller, sits at his desk with a bemused gaze behind thin oval glasses. The desk is neat but crowded with books and a cash register, with revolutionary banners pinned to the front and mementoes entombed under its glass top. Behind him is the single bunk bed where he sleeps. The shop is crammed with shelves of books on history, culture, economics and politics – primarily Chinese, but there are also books on the Romanovs, Vladimir Putin and … [Read more...] about Exiled bookseller: ‘If they can take Hong Kong back, the next place is Taiwan’