Home
/
RELIGION & LIBERTY ONLINE
/
Former Next Digital CEO denied bail after five months in prison
Former Next Digital CEO denied bail after five months in prison
Jul 18, 2025 8:09 PM

Cheung Kim-hung, former CEO of the pany founded by pro-democracy activist Jimmy Lai, must continue to sit in jail as he awaits his Dec. 28 court date, accused of violating the broad and oppressive National Security Law imposed by Beijing.

Read More…

After enduring five months in prison awaiting trial on conspiracy charges under Hong Kong’s National Security Law (NSL), Cheung Kim-hung, former CEO of Next Digital pany, was denied bail by the city’s high court.

The presiding judge, D’Almada Remedios, denied Cheung’s request for bail on Nov. 5, citing insufficient grounds for “believing that Cheung would not continue mit acts endangering National Security if bail were granted,” according to the Hong Kong Free Press.

Cheung was one of the top executives of the now-defunct pany Next Digital and its subsidiary newspaper Apple Daily. Both entities e under increasing government scrutiny for denouncing China and munist government, violations of the extremely restrictive NSL.

Cheung and six other senior executives of Next Digital await trial on charges of conspiring with longtime Acton friend Jimmy Lai, Next Digital’s founder.

Next Digital, Apple Daily, and Apple Daily Limited, all founded by Jimmy Lai, also face charges.

Hong Kong’s NSL, which was imposed by Beijing, aims to stifle any hint of dissent, including freedom of speech, assembly, and expression, by banning what party leaders deem to be acts of subversion, collusion with foreign powers, or terrorism against the city’s increasingly authoritarian government.

Acquiring bail is much tougher in National Security cases, as the malleable law allows a “specific exception” to the general rule of granting of bail in Hong Kong criminal cases.

Section 9P in Hong Kong’s Criminal Procedure Ordinance bans media from publishing details of the court session involving a request for bail. Such details may be reported at a later time.

Cheung and the other six Next Digital executives, including Lai, are set to appear in High Court on Dec. 28, where they face possible life imprisonment.

Apple Daily, a prominent pro-democracy Hong Kong newspaper, was forced to shut down operations after city police raided its headquarters and froze HK$18 million (US$2.3 million) in assets.

In addition, a government-appointed personal investigator raided Next Digital’s headquarters in a search and seizure of its financial records. pany filed for liquidation on Sept.5, as employees stepped down to allow pany’s creditors to be paid.

Jimmy Lai founded Next Digital in 1990 with a single magazine after the rights that Hong Kongers once enjoyed began to be erased. His publication produced pieces that opposed the rising Communist government in China and its overflowing influence on Hong Kong freedoms.

Specifically, Lai is charged with fraud related to his sublease of pany’s headquarters, along with conspiracy, collusion with foreign forces, and calling for sanctions against Hong Kong and its leaders.

Hong Kong party leaders have been after Lai for decades in an effort to silence his influential pro-democracy voice. With the passing of the sweeping NSL in June 2020, its vague language and broad application have made an example out of Lai.

The Acton Institute honored Lai with its Faith and Freedom Award in 2020, recognizing his fight against totalitarianism and promotion of the dignity of the human person.

The Acton Institute’s in-depth documentary, The Hong Konger, showcases Lai’s unceasing activism and fight for human rights in Hong Kong. The film is set to debut in early 2022.

Comments
Welcome to mreligion comments! Please keep conversations courteous and on-topic. To fosterproductive and respectful conversations, you may see comments from our Community Managers.
Sign up to post
Sort by
Show More Comments
RELIGION & LIBERTY ONLINE
Is it really ‘aid’ if it goes to relatively wealthy nations?
Alan Duncan, an aid minister in the UK, says his government is “forced” to hand over large amounts of money to the EU’s foreign aid budget, but has no say in how the money is spent. The problem is that much of the $2 billion+ “aid” money (one-sixth of the British budget) goes to projects such as making a Moroccan water park more eco-friendly, an art project in St. Petersburg, and building a hotel and plex in Barbados. Britain’s International...
Dodd-Frank: The Other Serious Threat
At least es at us head on. The greater legislative threat may be the one that most Americans have never heard of. Economist Scott Powell and Acton friend Jay Richards explain in a new piece in Barron’s: While Obamacare received more attention, the Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, also known as Dodd-Frank after its Senate and House sponsors, … unleashed a new regulatory body, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, to operate with unprecedented power. Dodd-Frank became law in...
Did 2,362 Millionaires Get Unemployment Checks in 2009? (Answer: Yes they did.)
The Congressional Research Service (CRS), a group that works exclusively for the U.S. Congress, issued a report with one of the greatest titles I’ve ever seen on a government document: Receipt of Unemployment Insurance by e Unemployed Workers (“Millionaires”) Now the first nine words are nothing special, typical policy-wonk speak. But whoever added in the word “millionaires” with scare quotes and parentheses is a genius. Most people would have been nodding off around the word “Insurance” but seeing millionaires (that’s...
Stop Apologizing for Our Liberties
You cannot apologize to a fanatic, says Lee Harris. It only serves to convince him that he was right all along: The last few weeks have witnessed a peculiar and disturbing spectacle: An American administration that has spent a great deal of time and energy apologizing for our liberties—in particular, for what many would regard as the foundation of all our other liberties, namely, the freedom to express our minds as we see fit. This signature freedom, of which Americans...
Markets and culture: A time to play, a time to pray
Faced with the prospect of a professional athletic career, a nearly-half million dollar salary, and a perfect lady, what’s not to like? Apparently, for Grant Desme, it was the noise and unrest of the world. Can a culture of life and the noise and tumult of the marketplace co-exist? Rev. Robert Sirico, reflecting on this, says they can, so long as it is not a place where: [C]apitalism…places the human person at the mercy of blind economic forces…What we propose,...
Counting the Profit of a Third Party Choice
Joe Carter recently highlighted the discussion at Ethika Politika, the journal of the Center for Morality in Public Life, about the value of (not) voting, particularly the suggestion by Andrew Haines that in some cases there is a moral duty not to vote. This morning I respond with an analysis of the consequences of not voting, ultimately arguing that one must not neglect to count the cost of abstaining to vote for any particular office. One issue, however, that I...
On Call with Dr. Pamela Casson
Dr. Pamela Casson, a pediatrician in Colorado Springs, knows what it means literally to be “On Call.” This week she shares with us in this video interview with Jon Hirst how she sees God working through her in her work with families, children and the world around her. Thank you Pamela for giving us an inside look at how you see your work as blessing the world. ...
Rev. Sirico on Life, Work, and Human Flourishing
J.Q. Tomanek of Ignitum Today interviewed Rev. Sirico about life, work, human flourishing, and his new book, Defending the Free Market: JQ Tomanek: Back in the day, holiness was misinterpreted as a cleric or religious life thing. How can a lay Catholic practice their faith? What are some ways to sanctify our work as lay Catholics? Is “ora et labora” just a monk thing? Reverend Sirico: Yes, religious people are often tempted to e so “heavenly minded they are no...
How were people On Call in Culture 165 years ago?
What is so special about 1837? That was the year Abraham Kuyper was born. September 29th is his 165th birthday. So we thought we would go back to 1837 and see how people were being On Call in Culture back then. We don’t know if they were all believers on a mission to bless the world, but by seeing what was going on 165 years ago, we hope you are encouraged to engage your world in 2012! How did people...
Want to Help the Poor? Promote a Free Market in Health Care
Want to help the poor? Promote a free market in health care. That’s the argument made by John C. Goodman, author of the new book Priceless: Curing the Healthcare Crisis. Timothy Dalrymple recently talked with Goodman about the best approach for restoring free-market pricing mechanisms into the market for medical care and health insurance: Aren’t there some people, however, who have little of money and lots of time, and would prefer to wait in order to receive cheaper care? There...
Related Classification
Copyright 2023-2025 - www.mreligion.com All Rights Reserved