Hong Kong Tycoon Remains In Jail After Landmark Challenge To Security Law
By Su Xinqi and Jerome Taylor
02/01/21 AT 4:44 AM
Hong Kong media tycoon Jimmy Lai was ordered Monday to remain in jail while judges consider his fresh bail application, the first major legal challenge to a sweeping national security law Beijing imposed on the city last year.
The landmark case puts the city's independent judiciary on a potentially precarious collision course with China's authoritarian leadership as Beijing seeks to snuff out dissent in the restless financial hub.
Lai, 73, who owns the pro-democracy tabloid Apple Daily, is one of more than 100 democracy supporters arrested under the new law since it was enacted in June, and the highest-profile figure to be incarcerated on pretrial charges.