Two Hong Kong men charged in stabbing attack on former editor

Two Hong Kong men charged in stabbing attack on former editor

HONG KONG - Authorities in Hong Kong charged two men on Wednesday with wounding following last month's stabbing of the former editor of a major newspaper.

Police charged the two 37-year-old men handed over by Chinese authorities on Monday after they were arrested in Guangdong province, across the border from the former British colony.

A man in a helmet attacked Kevin Lau, former chief editor of the Ming Pao daily, in broad daylight on a leafy harbourfront street, slashing him in the back several times on Feb 26. The assailant rode off on a motorcycle with an accomplice.

Many in Hong Kong, which returned to Chinese rule in 1997, viewed the attack as an assault on press freedom.

Thousands of protesters dressed in black and wearing blue ribbons, symbolizing press freedom, held a march on March 2 to condemn the stabbing.

Eight men and one woman arrested in connection with the case are on bail and are scheduled to report to police in mid-April.

Around lunchtime on Wednesday, four men wielding metal bars attacked a man and a woman who have been employed in the yet-to-be published Hong Kong Morning News, causing injuries that required hospital treatment.

The pair were walking near the busy Tsim Sha Tsui tourist area with around six colleagues from the Chinese-language newspaper due to be launched later this year when they were attacked. Police said the attackers fled in a car.

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