Lai Chi-ying, a well-known Hong Kong democracy activist and media mogul, was unexpectedly granted bail by the Hong Kong High Court on Wednesday (Dec. 23). This is the first example of a person arrested by Hong Kong authorities on charges of violating national security laws to be granted bail.
Lai was arrested by police in August on an initial charge of “fraud” related to a land use right, but was soon released on bail, and was re-arrested on Dec. 3, when authorities added “collusion with foreign countries or forces to endanger national security” to his charges. He was taken into custody at Lai Chi Kok Reception Centre in Kowloon West, Hong Kong. He was denied bail on two separate occasions.
The 73-year-old founder of Next Media, Lai Chi-ying, applied again for bail at the High Court on Wednesday, and Judge Lee Yun-teng decided to grant him bail after hearing arguments from both sides. However, the bail conditions were quite harsh. The court required him to post bail in the amount of HK$10 million and to have three other people to provide security, each paying HK$100,000. The court also required Lai Chi-ying to surrender his travel documents, not to leave his residence, and to report to the police station three times a week.
The court announced that Lai Chi-ying’s case will be heard on April 16 next year.
The Chinese Communist Party introduced a national security law in Hong Kong on June 30 to liquidate those who participated in the mass demonstrations against the Hong Kong government in 2019. So far, more than 10,000 people have been arrested by police and more than 2,000 have been sentenced.
Earlier this month, pro-democracy lawmakers in Hong Kong’s Legislative Council resigned en masse in opposition to the joint disqualification of four pro-democracy lawmakers by Beijing and the Hong Kong government.
Hong Kong police arrested more than 30 people for violating national security laws, and four of them were sentenced to prison. Lai Chi-ying was the only one of these people to be released on bail. Other prominent Hong Kong democracy activists such as Wong Chi-fung and Chow Ting were denied bail.
The Hong Kong government’s crackdown on pro-democracy legislators has drawn strong condemnation from the international community, and the United States and other Western countries have adopted various forms of sanctions against Hong Kong. But so far, the Hong Kong government’s suppression of the pro-democracy camp has not abated.
According to Hong Kong media reports, the evidence that the police used to accuse Lai Chi-ying of violating national security laws were some tweets he sent on Twitter, some comments he made publicly, and interviews he gave to foreign media.
Other alleged actions occurred before the national security law took effect, such as Lai’s tweets calling on the United States to impose sanctions on Chinese officials. But the National Security Law makes it clear that the law does not apply retroactively to several of the major crimes in question.
The National Security Law states that a suspect should not be allowed to post bail unless the judge has sufficient reason to believe that the suspect or defendant will not continue to engage in acts that endanger national security.
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