BREAKING: Hong Kong court blocks Jimmy Lai’s latest bid to appeal against national security search warrant on phones
Hong Kong Free Press
Hong Kong’s Court of Appeal has blocked pro-democracy media tycoon Jimmy Lai’s bid to challenge a national security search warrant of his phones, which he says contained protected journalistic materials, at the city’s top court.
Previous attempts made by the founder of defunct pro-democracy newspaper Apple Daily to block the warrant were twice rejected at the High Court in August and October last year.
Lai, 75, has been held in custody since December 2020. He is accused of two counts of conspiracy to collude with foreign forces, and one count of collusion with foreign forces under the Beijing-imposed national security law, and has also been charged under the colonial-era sedition law over allegedly seditious publications.
The collusion charge has, however, been left on court files, meaning that while the prosecution reserves the right to proceed with the charge, they cannot do so without a judge’s approval.
Lai is currently serving a five-year-and-nine-month prison term for fraud related to the lease of Apple Daily’s headquarters in Tseung Kwan O.
According to Lai’s legal team, the police confiscated two phones from Lai’s home on August 10, 2020, the same day that over 100 police officers raided the newspaper’s headquarters.
Lai identified thousands of items on the two phones as journalistic material, which is supposed to be protected from police search and seizure. The commissioner of police disputed 8,179 claims.
Under the sweeping security law, magistrates may grant a search warrant if they believe “there is reasonable ground for suspecting that any specified evidence” will be found.
The media tycoon applied for leave to apply for a judicial review last August, but the application was rejected by High Court Judge Wilson Chan later that month.
Lai then filed another appeal against Chan’s decision, which was rejected by the Court of Appeal last October.
In previous hearings, Lai’s team argued that “specified evidence” should not be interpreted to include journalistic materials, which were usually protected from police search and seize operations.
The national security trial against Lai is set to resume in September 25 this year.
In June 2020, Beijing inserted national security legislation directly into Hong Kong’s mini-constitution – bypassing the local legislature – following a year of pro-democracy protests and unrest. It criminalised subversion, secession, collusion with foreign forces and terrorist acts, which were broadly defined to include disruption to transport and other infrastructure. The move gave police sweeping new powers, alarming democrats, civil society groups and trade partners, as such laws have been used broadly to silence and punish dissidents in China. However, the authorities say it has restored stability and peace to the city.
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