The Hong Kong government has filed a request to seize “criminally related” properties owned by jailed pro-democracy media mogul Jimmy Lai on national security grounds.
The High Court petition was filed on Thursday “to achieve the important objectives of preventing and suppressing acts and activities that endanger national security,” the government said in a statement. STATEMENT.
It is unclear what the properties are.
The statement cited Lai’s previous convictions under the Beijing-imposed national security law, saying the Supreme Court had found him to be “the ringleader and driving force behind the case, knowingly using Apple Daily and his personal influence” to undermine local and Beijing authorities.
The announcement comes a week after the government designated three companies linked to Lai’s now-defunct Apple Daily tabloid “prohibited organizations” and deregistered them.
Police surrounded the Apple Daily building in Tseung Kwan O a day later.
All three firms were tried and convicted along with the founder of Apple Daily in his high-profile national security case. Lai was sentenced to 20 years behind bars while the firms were each fined HK$3,004,500.
Thursday’s statement cited a provision of the national security law that the proceeds of security breaches, “including financial assistance, benefits and rewards, and funds and means used or intended to be used in the commission of the criminal offense shall be seized and confiscated.”
The High Court will order the confiscation order “only if it is satisfied, after an application by the Secretary of Justice, that the property to be confiscated meets the relevant conditions”.
The confiscation order would cut “chains of financing” and prevent further acts that could endanger national security, the statement said.
Six former Apple Daily executives were jailed along with Lai for up to 10 years. Two of them, Fung Wai-kong and Lam Man-chung, have filed a complaint.
The jailing of the media mogul and his staff has drawn international criticism. The head of the United Nations for human rights, Volker Turk, expressed regret for the 20-year prison sentence was delivered to Lai, demanding that the decision be “rescinded forthwith”.
In contrast, Hong Kong officials and lawmakers have praised the prison sentence. Chief Executive John Lee said Lai “he deserves his punishment”, adding that the tycoon had “committed numerous heinous crimes and his evil deeds were immense”.
