The National Security Office of the police launched an operation yesterday (29th) morning and sent officers to the "Stance News" office to search in Kwun Tong, and arrested 3 men and 3 women "Stance News" current or former senior officials, including the former editor-in-chief of "Stance" Zhong Peiquan, Acting editor-in-chief Lin Shaotong, former directors Zhou Dazhi, Wu Aiyi, Fang Minsheng, and He Yunshi, while Deputy Interview Director Chen Langsheng assisted in the investigation.
Among them, Zhong and Lin were escorted to the West Kowloon Court this afternoon (30th). Together with the registered company "Best Pencil (Hong Kong) Limited", they were charged with conspiracy to publish/or copy seditious publications.
Lin was still hospitalized due to physical discomfort and has not appeared in court today.
The prosecution said that the police still needed time to investigate and revealed that it would not rule out more people being arrested. The magistrate finally allowed the case to be postponed until February 25 for interrogation, and also opposed the release of the two defendants on bail.
The two defendants were denied bail
The prosecution applied that the case does not need to be answered for the time being, and demanded that the trial be postponed for 8 weeks. It also claimed that the police had sufficient evidence to prosecute the defendants. However, the police just went to the "Position" company to conduct a search yesterday and obtained a lot of new evidence, including 6 boxes of documents. , More than 60 computers, 27 hard drives, etc., require further investigation. The police did not rule out that more people would be arrested. Official Luo finally approved the adjournment of the application.
Both Zhong and Lin, who did not appear in court today, were represented by lawyers to apply for bail. The prosecution requested that the bail threshold of the National Security Law be considered, and the bail of the last two was refused.
And when Lin Ruoming is discharged from hospital, he also needs to go to court first.
The three defendants are: Best Pencil (Hong Kong) Limited, Zhong Peiquan (52 years old) and Lin Shaotong (34 years old) are all charged with a conspiracy to publish/or copy seditious publications, accusing them of violating Chapter 200 of Hong Kong Laws, "Criminal Section 10(1)(C) of the Crimes Ordinance refers to their conspiracy to publish and/or copy seditious publications in Hong Kong between July 7, 2020 and December 29, 2021 (both dates inclusive) , That is, publications with the following intent:
(a) To cause hatred or contempt for the Central Government or the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region government or to provoke rebellion against it:
(b) Inspire Hong Kong residents to attempt to change other legally formulated matters in Hong Kong without following legal means;
(c) Caused hatred, contempt for Hong Kong's justice, or provoked rebellion against it
(d) Caused dissatisfaction among Hong Kong residents:
(e) Incite others to use violence: and/or
(f) Counseling others to disobey the law or disobey the legal order.
Except for Lin Shaotong who did not appear in court because he was not in hospital, Best Pencil did not send a representative to appear in court.
The police arrested the current and former editor-in-chief of Position News yesterday and searched their offices.
(See the picture below for details)
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Lin's blood pressure is too high, hope to stay in hospital for observation
Liang Jiashan, the barrister representing Lin Shaotong, said that Lin is still in the hospital and has been signed by the doctor to be discharged. However, because of his high blood pressure, he hopes to stay in the hospital for further observation.
Attorney Liang also claimed that Lin You applied for bail, but he has not yet determined when he will be discharged from the hospital and has not yet been able to obtain instructions.
Notice of appearance has been served to the company
As for the registered company Best Pencil (Hong Kong Limited), the prosecution representative's acting senior assistant criminal prosecutor Wu Shujuan pointed out that there is only one director of the company, but he is currently not in Hong Kong.
The prosecution sent a court notice to the company’s former executive director and assistant editor-in-chief this morning, but two people refused to sign for it.
At about 1 p.m., the prosecution sent the notice of appearance to its office in Kwun Tong and was signed by an employee. The prosecution therefore believed that the notice of appearance had been served in accordance with the regulations.
Case number: WKCC 5281/ 2021
Searching Position News | Exposure of the content of articles related to incitement: Police wanted Cai Donghao and many others to search for Position News | Employees returned to the company to take care of the soft Chen Langsheng: Today is a sad day to search for Position News | Position Suspension Association: I am sad and will do my best Assist the police in defending the freedom of the press to search for news | The website and FB page will be closed at 11pm and posted a black notice
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