Hong Kong police arrest bookstore owner and staff for selling Jimmy Lai biography, broadcaster reports

By Jessie Pang and Greg Torode

HONG KONG, March 24 (Reuters) – Hong Kong police arrested a bookstore owner and three shopkeepers on Tuesday for allegedly selling “seditious” publications including a biography of jailed media tycoon Jimmy Lai, broadcaster TVB reported.

The owner of the Book Punch store Pong Yat-ming and three staff were accused of selling copies of “The Troublemaker”, a biography of Lai by one of his former business directors, Mark Clifford, TVB reported.

Lai, founder of the now-shuttered pro-democracy Apple Daily newspaper, was sentenced to a 20-year jail term in February for collusion with foreign forces and ​sedition in the city’s biggest national security case.

A police spokesperson, asked about the reported arrests, did not comment directly but said in a statement that police “will take actions according to actual circumstances and in accordance with the law”.

A notice outside the door of the bookstore read: “Resting for a day due to emergency, sorry for the inconvenience.”

Reuters could not immediately reach Pong for comment and could not determine whether Pong or any of the staff had been charged with any offence.

Clifford, now based in New York, was a former director of media group Next Digital owned by Lai. In response to questions from Reuters, Clifford said he was not aware of the arrests, but “if true, it’s a sad and ironic commentary that selling a book on a man who is in jail for his activities as a journalist, for promoting free expression, would be subject to sedition”.

Under a local national security law, known as Article 23, sedition is punishable up to seven years in jail and a maximum of 10 years if the act involves collusion with an “external force”.

Beijing imposed broader and more sweeping national security legislation on the city in 2020, with Hong Kong and Chinese officials saying new laws were needed to bring stability after months of pro-democracy protests rocked the city in 2019.

In a further crackdown on dissent, the city government ​on Monday gazetted new amendments to the implementation rules to the Beijing-imposed law, which would allow customs officers to seize items that are deemed to have “seditious intention”.

The moves also mean police with warrants from a magistrate can now demand that people suspected of breaching the national security law provide mobile phone or computer passwords or face jail and a fine.

(Reporting by Jessie Pang and Greg Torode;)