HONG KONG – Police arrested the former executive editor-in-chief of the now-closed pro-democracy Apple Daily tabloid on Wednesday, local media reported.
Police said in a statement that they arrested a 51-year-old former male newspaper editor on suspicion of “conspiring to collude with foreign countries or foreign forces to endanger national security.”
The popular tabloid of staunch Beijing critic Jimmy Lai folded after several hundred police raided its headquarters on June 17 and froze key assets and bank accounts. It printed its last edition on June 24.
According to the police, dozens of the paper’s articles may have violated the city’s China-imposed national security law, the first instance of authorities taking aim at media reports under the legislation.(Reuters)
