Hong Kong Apple Daily founder and staff face new sedition charge
Media tycoon Jimmy Lai, founder of Apple Daily, looks on as he leaves the Court of Final Appeal by prison van, in Hong Kong, on Feb 1, 2021.
Hong Kong prosecutors on Tuesday (Dec 28) filed a "seditious publications" charge against jailed media tycoon Jimmy Lai, 74, the founder of pro-democracy Apple Daily newspaper.
Lai already faces two charges under a national security law that Beijing imposed on the former British colony last June, including collusion with a foreign country.
The additional sedition charge accuses Lai of conspiracy to print, publish, sell, distribute "seditious publications" between April 2019 and June 24, 2021.
According to a charge sheet seen by Reuters, prosecutors allege that the publications could "bring into hatred or contempt or to excite disaffection" against the Hong Kong and Chinese governments.
The same conspiracy to produce seditious publications charge was also filed against six former Apple Daily staffers, who appeared in court on Tuesday with Lai.
