UK calls on Hong Kong to stop targeting tycoon Jimmy Lai

[December 14, 2020]    LONDON (Reuters) - British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab called on authorities in Hong Kong to stop targeting Jimmy Lai on Monday after the democracy activist and media tycoon was charged under the city's national security law.

Media mogul Jimmy Lai Chee-ying, founder of Apple Daily, walks to a prison van to head to court, after being charged under the national security law, in Hong Kong, China December 12, 2020. REUTERS/Tyrone Siu

"The Hong Kong National Security Law breaches the internationally-binding Joint Declaration, and is now being used to charge Jimmy Lai," Raab said.

"This highlights the authorities' continued attacks on the rights and freedoms of its people.

"We have raised this case with the authorities in Hong Kong and call on them to end their targeting of Lai and other pro-democracy voices."

(Reporting by Kate Holton and William James; editing by Paul Sandle)

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