Hong Kong national security police Wednesday arrested a former editor at the now-defunct pro-democracy newspaper Apple Daily, weeks after the paper was forced to close amid a crackdown on political dissent.

       Lam Man-chung, who was executive editor in chief, was arrested on suspicion of conspiring to collude with foreign forces to endanger national security, according to the South China Morning Post, which cited an unnamed source. He is the eighth person from Apple Daily to be arrested in recent weeks.

       Police acknowledged that a 51-year-old former newspaper editor was arrested Wednesday but did not identify him.

       In June, police raided Apple Daily’s offices, confiscating hard drives and laptops. The arrests of top executives, editors and reporters at the paper, as well as the freezing of $2.3 million in assets, led Apple Daily to cease operations last month. It sold 1 million copies of its final edition.

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       Following months of anti-government protests in 2019, Beijing last year imposed a sweeping national security law in Hong Kong, a measure that critics say restricts the freedoms promised to the former British colony when it was handed over to China in 1997. More than 100 pro-democracy supporters have been arrested, and many others have fled abroad.