Two more arrests over attack on Hong Kong journalist

HONG KONG: Hong Kong police yesterday arrested a man and a woman over a brutal knife attack on a veteran journalist, bringing the total number detained in the case to 11.

Kevin Lau, a former editor of the liberal Ming Pao newspaper, was hacked with a cleaver in broad daylight last month by two men who fled the scene on a motorbike.

“Police further arrested a 55-year- old man and a 37-year old woman in the small hours of today,” city police said in a statement.

The force had on Wednesday announced the arrests of nine men, including two suspects from the Chinese mainland with links to triad organised crime gangs.

Hong Kong police commissioner Andy Tsang told reporters the two triad-linked suspects had been arrested in the city of Dongguan, some 100 kilometres across the border.

Seven other ‘accomplices’ were arrested across Hong Kong, he said.

Lau remains in hospital following the assault on Feb 26, in which he was struck six times on the back and legs with a cleaver, leaving wounds including a 16-centimetre-long gash.

The attack came just weeks after Lau was sacked from the top job at Ming Pao and replaced with an editor widely seen as pro-Beijing.

His overthrow triggered protests over media freedom in Hong Kong, with concerns mounting that Beijing is seeking to tighten control over the semiautonomous region. — AFP