Home of Beijing critic Jimmy Lai firebombed

Masked assailants in Hong Kong fire-bombed the house and corporate headquarters

of Jimmy Lai, the outspoken founder of the Next Media group who has been active in the recent pro-democracy movement in the territory.

Local TV showed CCTV footage of unknown attackers pulling up outside the tycoon’s house at about 1.30am and throwing a petrol bomb that exploded when it struck the gates of Mr Lai’s home in Kowloon.

Some 20 minutes later, one or possibly two incendiary devices were thrown at the gates of Next Media Ltd, Mr Lai's media group, which has been strongly supportive of the Occupy Central campaign seeking greater democracy for Hong Kong. Next Media publishes the Apple Daily, one of the city's most popular newspapers.

There were no casualties and the fires were extinguished quickly. The cars used in the attacks were later found burned out and stripped of their licence plates elsewhere in the city.

Last year Beijing ruled out free elections for the Hong Kong chief executive position in 2017, sparking street protests that lasted for more than two months and caused major disruption in the financial hub.

Mr Lai was one of the most prominent figures at the demonstrations and was on the streets when thousands of protesters were tear-gassed by police during the protests, which started in September.

He he has been strongly critical of Hong Kong chief executive CY Leung and is one of a number of leaders of the protests facing arrest, and has been asked to “help police with their enquiries”.

Mr Lai was arrested on December 13th with other pro-democracy activists when police cleared a protest site in the city’s Admiralty area. The following day Mr Lai said he had “decided to step down from his executive positions of the group so as to spend more time with his family and further pursue his personal interests”.

“This is a continual effort to try to intimidate the press in Hong Kong,” Next Media spokesman Mark Simon said. “This is raw and pure intimidation.”

Meanwhile, justice secretary Rimsky Yuen told reporters no effort would be spared in trying to find the culprits.

“I am sure police will carry out a full investigation and deal with such a case seriously,” he told reporters.

Mr Lai has suffered similar attacks before. In 2013 someone rammed his house and left a machete in the driveway, while last year hundreds of emails were leaked detailing donations to various pro-democracy groups in Hong Kong. –(Additional reporting by Reuters)