Apple Daily will seek a court order on Thursday after police told the Hong Kong newspaper they would unseal documents seized during a raid on its offices unless it took legal action by Monday.

The action followed the arrest on Monday of the paper’s founder Jimmy Lai Chee-ying, his two sons, four senior employees and three activists in the most high-profile operation since the sweeping national security law was imposed by Beijing six weeks ago.

The tabloid-style daily’s editor-in-chief Ryan Law Wai-kwong said that police had written to the company’s lawyers stating that officers would unseal the piles of seized documents, which could be protected under the law, if they did not take legal action by Monday.