WorlPosted at: Jun 17 2021 4:52PM

Hong Kong: 500 policemen raid pro-democracy paper

Beijing, June 17(UNI) Around 500 policemen on Thursday raided the offices of pro-democracy paper Apple Daily in Hong Kong, accusing that the paper's reports breached national security law.

According to reports police arrested the editor-in-chief and four other executives from their homes, and also froze HK$18m ($2.3m; £1.64m) of assets owned by three companies Apple Daily Limited, Apple Daily Printing Limited and AD internet Limited all linked to Apple Daily, the BBC reported.

The paper's owner and well known media tychoon Jimmy Lai, is already in jail on a string of charges.

Apple Daily is known to be critical of the mainland Chinese leadership.

According to the police since 2019, Apple Daily has been publishing articles calling on countries to impose sanctions on Hong Kong and mainland China.

The paper broadcasted live footage of the raid on its Facebook account.

Photos published online by Apple Daily showed police going through reporters' computers.

The police separately visited the homes of editor-in-chief Ryan Law, parent company Next Digital's CEO Cheung Kim-hung, COO Chow Tat-kuen, Apple Daily publisher Chan Pui-man and Director Cheung Chi-wai, and arrested them.

UNI XC ACL1542