POLICE IN China have arrested seven men, including the man they believe to be the mastermind behind a plot to shoot veteran Hong Kong human rights activist Martin Lee and leading pro-democracy media tycoon, Jimmy Lai.
The arrests took place just across the border from Hong Kong in the southern boomtown of Shenzhen, the South China Morning Postreported. Police officials said the men allegedly had links to Triad organised crime gangs.
Last year, a Chinese man was arrested during a routine road block in Hong Kong, travelling in a taxi with a home-made gun, several rounds of ammunition and the addresses of Mr Lee and Mr Lai. The man, Huang Nanhua, was sentenced to 16 years in prison earlier this month on weapons charges.
Mr Lee, a barrister, was a key figure in Hong Kong’s political development in the lead up to 1997, when the former crown colony reverted to Chinese rule. He continues to push for democratic reform and is seen as a thorn in the side of the pro-Beijing camp in Hong Kong.
“The police shouldn’t treat this case as over until they arrest the real mastermind,” Mr Lee said yesterday, adding that the police had not told him about the plot against him.
Mr Lai is also a prominent figure in Hong Kong public life and publishes the pro-democracy tabloid, Apple Daily. He has been strongly critical of Beijing since the military crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrators in Beijing in 1989, although during the trial of Mr Huang, Mr Lai said he did not believe the plot to kill him had anything to do with the Communist Party.