Outspoken pro-democracy Hong Kong media tycoon Jimmy Lai arrested, newsroom searched

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HONG KONG (AP) — Hong Kong police arrested media tycoon Jimmy Lai and raided the publisher’s headquarters Monday in the highest-profile use yet of a new national security law Beijing imposed on the city in June.

“Jimmy Lai is being arrested for collusion with foreign powers at this time,” Mark Simon, an executive of Lai’s media group and his aide, wrote on Twitter.

The 71-year-old owns popular tabloid Apple Daily and is an outspoken pro-democracy figure in Hong Kong who regularly criticizes China’s authoritarian rule and Hong Kong’s government.

Masked and wearing a blue shirt and a light gray blazer, Lai was led out of his mansion in Kowloon by police officers also wearing surgical masks and was taken away. He was later brought to the headquarters of his media company Next Digital, where a police raid was ongoing according to a livestreamed video by staff. Lai remained in the offices for two and a half hours before police took him away in a car.

Hong Kong police said seven people between 39 and 72 years old had been arrested on suspicion of violating the new security law, with offences including collusion with a foreign country, but the statement did not reveal the names of those arrested. The police did not rule out further arrests being made.

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