Hong Kong activist Jimmy Lai applies for bail again

Prominent Hong Kong democracy advocate and newspaper founder Jimmy Lai is back in court to relaunch his appeal for bail. A prison van drove into the car park of Hong Kong's High Court shortly before 9 a.m. (0100GMT) Thursday. Police appeared to guard the entrance as the van drove in, and Lai is thought to have been inside the van.

Lai is applying for bail for the second time before his trial in April, on the charge of "collusion with foreign forces," a new crime in Hong Kong under the National Security Law that Beijing imposed last year.

The National Security Law has another feature new to Hong Kong: the denial of bail unless a judge believes that the defendant is not going to commit the crime again which the person has not yet been convicted of.

After being arrested and charged in early December last year, Lai applied for bail and was at first refused. He then appealed and on 23 December was granted bail with stringent conditions amounting to house arrest.

The Hong Kong government prosecution immediately appealed against this, and the Court of Final Appeal put Lai back behind bars, but allowed him to apply for bail again, on different grounds.

The Chinese Communist Party government has frequently accused Lai of being an "anti-China troublemaker." And the Chinese Communist Party newspaper People's Daily attacked the Hong Kong Judiciary when Lai was allowed bail in December.

Image: AP