The Hong Kong media tycoon Jimmy Lai was arrested on Friday in what a pro-democracy lawmaker has called "political persecution."
Lai, a publishing tycoon known for his anti-Beijing activism, was arrested for his role during the anti-government protests that swept Hong Kong last year. The police have also accused him of intimidating a reporter for a competing newspaper in 2017.
A police source said the 71-year-old was held as part of an operation targeting those involved in a march on August 31 last year amid unrest sparked by a now-withdrawn plan that would have allowed the transfer of criminal suspects from Hong Kong to mainland China.
Protesters against the bill feared that it would erode the high degree of autonomy Beijing promised the former British colony when it resumed control in 1997.
Two pro-democracy former lawmakers, Lee Cheuk-yan and Yeung Sum, were also arrested on suspicion of illegal assembly on August 31.
Andrew Wan, a pro-democracy lawmaker, said: "The three were not even organizers, this is clearly political persecution."
Mark Simon, an executive from Lai's Next Digital Group, said: "With all that Hong Kong is facing, with all the trouble our city is in, how does arresting these three men at this time make any statement, other than (showing that) Beijing and the government want to stir the pot?"
Lai was a vocal participant in the Occupy protests of 2014, which demanded freer elections of the city's leader, and was a strong supporter of the anti-government demonstrations last year.
The Hong Kong protests later morphed into a broader anti-government movement fuelled by allegations of police brutality and the push for greater democracy. The protests have dampened since late last year and especially after the outbreak of the new coronavirus escalated into a public health emergency.
Lai was also accused of intimidating a reporter for Oriental Daily, a rival newspaper to his Apple Daily, using foul language in June 2017 while he was attending an annual vigil for demonstrators killed in the Chinese government's 1989 military crackdown on pro-democracy activists in central Beijing.
The assembly on August 31 was originally organized by the Civil Human Rights Front, which was behind the city's biggest anti-government events. But they canceled it after losing their appeal against a police ban.
Protesters gathered in the city's Central district regardless, before clashes broke out on Hong Kong Island and the Kowloon area across the Victoria Habour.
Those behind the rally said it was a religious gathering of Christians praying for Hong Kong's government leader, Chief Executive Carrie Lam, whom they called a "sinner."
They highlighted a provision of Hong Kong's Public Order Ordinance, which says assemblies exclusively held for religious purposes do not require police approval.
The police said the provision does not apply to the August 31 march and that the arrests were approved by government prosecutors.
Additional reporting by Christy Leung.
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