On October 15, 2020, Hong Kong media mogul and founder of Next Media, Chi-Ying Lai, and social activist Leung Kwok-hung (Long Hair) appeared before the West Kowloon Magistrate’s Court for an unauthorized June Fourth commemoration. Before that, Chi-Ying Lai’s office was searched again by police.
On October 15, the day the founder of Hong Kong’s Next Media, Chi-Ying Lai, appeared in court again for attending a June 4 commemoration that did not have police approval, Hong Kong police raided an office of Chi-Ying Lai and seized a number of exhibits in the absence of a lawyer. One of Lai’s advisers, Mark Simon, told AFP that the authorities were aiming to cut off his financial resources.
According to an AFP report from Hong Kong, 14 police officers arrived in the morning of the 15th to search the offices of one of Lai’s companies. Chi-Ying Lai himself told the media that the police seemed to be looking for ways to prosecute him. He said the police didn’t even wait for his lawyer to arrive before taking away a number of objects, which was illegal.
The Apple Daily, which Chi-Young Lai founded, reported the same day that the raid took place at an office of Chi-Young Lai in Kwun Tong, Kowloon, “partly used by Chi-Young Lai to inject capital into the Next Media Group to help run the group. The newspaper quoted a source as saying that the police raid raises concerns that there may be other hidden agendas, including preventing Next Media from obtaining operating funds.
Apple Daily later cited other media sources as saying that the police officers involved in the raid were from the National Security Agency, and that the raid may have been related to the conspiracy to defraud charges brought against Chi-Ying Lai in August of this year. The police had arrested Li Zhiying on August 10.
In the afternoon of August 15, Lai appeared with 25 other Hong Kong pro-democracy activists at the West Kowloon Magistracy. Among them were Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China (HKASPDMC) Chairman Lee Cheuk-yan, Vice Chairman Albert Ho, and many other members of the organization, as well as social activists. On June 4, 2020, for the first time in 30 years, Hong Kong police did not approve a June 4 commemoration rally.
Chi-Ying Lai has been the target of an ongoing crackdown by the authorities for his support of the democracy movement in Hong Kong. His arrest by the police on August 10 sparked widespread concern, and his Apple Daily stock market shot up dramatically, with citizens scrambling to buy the next day’s paper to show their support.
On October 15, Chi-Ying Lai’s office was searched again, and in the afternoon of that day, Next Media’s share price suddenly soared, rising 38%.
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