In a widely followed national security case, six former workers of Hong Kong’s now-defunct pro-democracy newspaper Apple Daily entered guilty pleas on Tuesday regarding conspiracy to collude with foreign forces.
The six who confessed to their crime of conspiring with media tycoon Jimmy Lai and various others to request a foreign country or organization “to impose sanctions or blockade, or engage in other hostile activities” against the Hong Kong and Chinese governments between July 2020 and June 2021.
The six ex-employees include Cheung Kim-hung, chief executive of the newspaper’s former owner, Next Digital, Apple Daily’s former associate publisher Chan Pui-man, former editor-in-chief Ryan Law, former executive editor-in-chief Lam Man-chung, former English edition editor-in-chief Fung Wai-kong and former editorial writer Yeung Ching-kee.
Lai and the six former Apple Daily employees were accused of conspiring to collaborate with foreign forces under the new security law that Beijing implemented in 2020, making it one of the largest national security cases in the former British colony.
Lai is a huge critic of China and is currently in jail after being convicted for his involvement in organizing an illegal assembly in 2020. He is facing various charges under the national security law. His legal proceedings are very complex which would likely continue into next year, as per some legal analysts.
