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Hong Kong media mogul and democracy advocate Jimmy Lai was denied bail on Thursday on a fraud charge amid a mounting crackdown on dissent in the semi-autonomous city.
Jimmy Lai of Next Digital, which publishes the Apple Daily newspaper, was one of 10 people arrested on August 10 on suspicion of violation of a national security law and collusion with a foreign country, according to police.
Lai, 73, was later released on bail, but police raided his company’s offices in October and took the documents.
On Wednesday, Lai and two Next Digital executives were charged with fraud over allegations that they violated Next Digital’s office space lease terms.
Lai appeared in court on Thursday and was denied bail. His case has been postponed until April 16.
Hong Kong police said in a statement Wednesday that they had arrested three men on fraud charges, without naming them. He also said that one of them was suspected of violating national security law and is still under investigation.
Beijing imposed the national security law in response to protests in Hong Kong that began in June 2019 over a proposed extradition law and expanded to include demands for more democracy in the former British colony.
The broad legislation sparked more public protests and led to complaints that Beijing is violating Hong Kong’s promised autonomy when it returned to China and damaging its status as a business center.
Apple Daily criticized the law on its front page on July 1, calling it the “last nail in the coffin” of the territory’s autonomy.
The British government had criticized Lai’s arrest in August and said the security law was being used to crush dissent.
The law “is being implemented in a way that undermines freedom of speech,” the British government said in a report this month on the status of the 1984 agreement for Hong Kong’s return to China.
“It is imperative that this freedom is fully respected,” the report said.
Lai was previously arrested in February and April on charges of participating in unauthorized protests. He also faces charges of joining an unauthorized vigil marking the anniversary of the June 4, 1989 crackdown on pro-democracy protests in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square.
