Overview
- Book Punch owner Pong Yat-ming and three shopkeepers were arrested Tuesday, local outlets including TVB reported, on suspicion of selling seditious publications such as Mark Clifford’s biography of jailed publisher Jimmy Lai.
- Police did not confirm the arrests or any charges and told Reuters they act in accordance with the law, while a sign on the shop’s door said it was closed for a day due to an emergency.
- The reports came after Monday’s government gazette set new rules that let customs seize items deemed to show seditious intention and let police with a magistrate’s warrant demand phone or computer passwords.
- Sedition under Hong Kong’s local security law carries up to seven years in prison, rising to 10 years if tied to an external force, and Lai received a 20-year sentence in February in a separate national security case.
- Author Mark Clifford, now in New York, called the situation sad and ironic if true, with Reuters noting it could not verify charges and Sky News citing multiple local reports that police seized books.