Umamageswari Maruthappan
Hong Kong democratic activist and media tycoon Adv. Jimmy Lai’s bail was denied again by another Hong Kong Court on 18th February 2021.
Lai was arrested under the National Security Law of the Chinese Government in December 2020 for allegedly being involved in the anti-government protests in 2019.
A local Court had previously granted bail to Jimmy Lai. However, the Final Court of Appeal in February 2021 termed the release as “erroneous”.
Now, the High Court Judge Anthea Pang had decided to keep Lai in Jail restricting it’s judgement to the provisions of the Security Law. One of its provisions state that “unless the judge has sufficient grounds for believing, a suspect shall not be released on bail.”
However, this is not the only case under which Lai was imprisoned. He is also facing charges for taking part in several non-authorized protests along with other criminal charges.
With this, the Chinese Government has gained a victory. It had repeatedly insisted on arresting Jimmy Lai and has also warned against releasing him on bail.
Read also: Business mogul Jimmy Lai remanded into custody as per Hong Kong’s National Security Law