Three companies affiliated with the defunct Apple Daily have been slapped with a sedition charge under colonial-era legislation after prosecutors accused them of violating Hong Kong’s national security law by conspiring to collude with foreign forces.

Apple Daily Limited, Apple Daily Printing Limited and AD Internet Limited were all previously charged alongside Apple Daily founder Jimmy Lai Chee-ying and six former executives over an alleged plot to seek international sanctions or hostile activities from foreign governments against Hong Kong or mainland China, after the security law took effect in June 2020.

The firms, all involved in the newspaper’s operation before a police crackdown last June, appointed a proxy to appear at West Kowloon Court for the first time during Thursday’s pre-trial hearing before the case was moved to the High Court.

The proxy, only identified in court by his surname Man, was named by the companies’ incumbent directors to act on their behalf during the criminal proceedings, but was not currently sitting on any of the directors’ boards.

Man has also engaged senior counsel Eric Kwok Tung-ming, who was a prosecutor in a number of trials related to the social unrest in 2019, as a legal representative.

The new joint charge states that all three companies allegedly conspired with the seven co-accused to “print, publish, sell, offer for sale, distribute, display and/or reproduce seditious publications” between April 2019 and June 2021. The same charge was laid against the seven in an earlier hearing last December.

The other defendants are editor-in-chief Ryan Law Wai-kwong, publisher Cheung Kim-hung, executive editor-in-chief Lam Man-chung, associate publisher Chan Pui-man, and editorial writers Fung Wai-kong and Yeung Ching-kee.

Kwok said he had no objection to the new charge against the companies, but asked the prosecution to provide more details regarding the allegations.

Man, the representative of three Apple Daily-affiliated firms charged under the national security law, leaves West Kowloon Court on Thursday.

The court will handle matters related to the case’s transfer in the next hearing on February 24. No sentencing cap applies at the High Court.

Following a government petition, the High Court has ordered the winding up of Apple Daily’s parent company, Next Digital. Kenny Tam King-ching and Man King-shing of Kenny Tam & Co were appointed provisional liquidators.

Sedition carries a maximum sentence of two years in prison for a first offence under the colonial-era Crimes Ordinance.

Under the national security law, conspiracy to collude with foreign forces carries a maximum punishment of life imprisonment, with serious cases featuring a minimum jail term of 10 years.

A corporate entity can also be fined and ordered to shut down if convicted under the Beijing-imposed security law.