In a widely followed national security case, six former employees of the defunct pro-democracy newspaper Apple Daily in Hong Kong entered guilty pleas on Tuesday to conspiracy to collude with foreign forces.
The six pled guilty to planning, between July 2020 and June 2021, to ‘impose sanctions or embargo, or engage in other hostile activities’ against the Hong Kong and Chinese governments alongside media billionaire Jimmy Lai and others.
The six include former Apple Daily associate publisher Chan Pui-man, former executive editor-in-chief Lam Man-chung, former editor-in-chief Ryan Law, former editor-in-chief Fung Wai-kong, former English edition editor-in-chief Yeung Ching-kee, and former chief executive of the newspaper’s former owner, Next Digital, Cheung Kim-hung.
Lai and the six former Apple Daily employees were accused of conspiring to collaborate with foreign forces under the new security law that Beijing implemented in 2020, making it one of the largest national security cases in the former British colony.
Lai, a ferocious opponent of Beijing who is already behind bars after being found guilty of participating in an unlawful gathering in 2020, is accused of numerous violations of the national security law.
Post Your Comments