2 Apple Daily Directors Charged in Hong Kong Under Beijing’s National Security Law
BY ISABEL VAN BRUGEN
June 18, 2021
Two Apple Daily executives have been charged under Beijing’s draconian national security law, a day after more than 500 police officers raided the newspaper’s headquarters and arrested five executives. The Apple Daily is one of Hong Kong’s only remaining independent newspapers.
According to a Hong Kong government release published after 3 p.m. local time on Friday, police charged two men, aged 47 and 59, for “conspiracy to endanger national security.”
Two Apple Daily executives have been charged under Beijing’s draconian national security law, a day after more than 500 police officers raided the newspaper’s headquarters and arrested five executives. The Apple Daily is one of Hong Kong’s only remaining independent newspapers.
According to a Hong Kong government release published after 3 p.m. local time on Friday, police charged two men, aged 47 and 59, for “conspiracy to endanger national security.”
In another Epoch Times article “US Condemns Hong Kong Government for ‘Politically Motivated’ Arrests of Apple Daily Executives,” State Department spokesperson Ned Price asserts:
the collusion charges “appear to be entirely politically motivated.”
On Thursday, June 18, the U.S. State Department on Thursday “strongly condemned the pro-Beijing Hong Kong government for using the draconian national security law as a political tool to target pro-democracy tabloid Apple Daily.”
On June 17, some 500 Hong Kong police officers raided Apple Daily’s headquarters and arrested five directors of the newspaper including its editor-in-chief. The police accused them of “collusion with a foreign country or with external elements to endanger national security” because the paper had published more than 30 articles since 2019 calling for foreign countries to impose sanctions on China and Hong Kong. The paper is one of the only remaining outlets still publishing voices critical of Beijing and the ruling Chinese Communist Party and views supportive of Hong Kong protesters.
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