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Hong Kong prosecutors slap 3 Apple Daily-affiliated firms with colonial-era sedition charge
- Apple Daily Limited, Apple Daily Printing Limited and AD Internet Limited have all been charged with sedition as part of ongoing national security law case
- Three firms appoint proxy to act on their behalf during criminal proceedings, enlist legal counsel from former prosecutor
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Three companies affiliated with the defunct Apple Daily have been slapped with a sedition charge under colonial-era legislation after prosecutors accused them of violating Hong Kong’s national security law by conspiring to collude with foreign forces.
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Apple Daily Limited, Apple Daily Printing Limited and AD Internet Limited were all previously charged alongside Apple Daily founder Jimmy Lai Chee-ying and six former executives over an alleged plot to seek international sanctions or hostile activities from foreign governments against Hong Kong or mainland China, after the security law took effect in June 2020.
The firms, all involved in the newspaper’s operation before a police crackdown last June, appointed a proxy to appear at West Kowloon Court for the first time during Thursday’s pre-trial hearing before the case was moved to the High Court.
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The proxy, only identified in court by his surname Man, was named by the companies’ incumbent directors to act on their behalf during the criminal proceedings, but was not currently sitting on any of the directors’ boards.
Man has also engaged senior counsel Eric Kwok Tung-ming, who was a prosecutor in a number of trials related to the social unrest in 2019, as a legal representative.
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