Jailed Hong Kong democracy activist and media tycoon Jimmy Lai (C), seen here in February 2021, won an appeal against a conviction for fraud on Thursday but remains in prison serving a 20 year sentence for endangering “national security.” File photo by Jerome Favre/EPA-EFE
Imprisoned Hong Kong newspaper magnate and democracy activist Jimmy Lai on Thursday won an appeal against a fraud conviction for which he was serving an almost six-year sentence handed down in 2022.
The convictions of Lai, who is a British citizen, and codefendant Wong Wai-keung on charges they illegally sublet office space in a government-owned media park were quashed and their sentences set aside by the Hong Kong Court of Appeal.
However, the 78-year-old Lai will remain in prison, serving a 20-year sentence handed down three weeks ago for collusion with foreign forces and conspiracy to print and distribute seditious material under a draconian national security law imposed by Beijing.
The Hong Kong government hailed the appeal, saying it demonstrated that the courts of the territory, which is a special administrative region of China, exercise judicial power “independently, and all judgments handed down by the courts are open and transparent.”
“The District Court conducted the trial impartially. While the defendants lodged an appeal in accordance with the law, the Court of Appeal allowed the appeal with a detailed explanation on the reasons. Under the fair and impartial legal system of Hong Kong, both the trial court and the Court of Appeal handled the case openly and transparently,” a government spokesman said in a news release.
However, it did not rule out challenging the appeal court’s ruling on grounds it didn’t change the fact Lai had “exploited public resources for private use,” saying a decision would be made after the Department of Justice had thoroughly studied the judgment.
Lai’s daughter, Claire Lai, dismissed Thursday’s ruling as a publicity stunt and reiterated her appeal for the international community to act to get her father, who is in poor health, freed from prison.
“No one should be fooled into thinking it is anything more. The rule of law is broken there, and my father is still unjustly imprisoned and will remain so for nearly 20 years unless urgent action is taken to secure his release,” she told the BBC.
Doughty Street Chambers, the London-based international law firm representing Lai, said the ruling was not a vindication of Hong Kong’s legal system and changed nothing for their client.
“No one should be fooled into thinking that this fraud appeal belatedly succeeding suggests the Hong Kong system operates fairly or justly,” said Caoilfhionn Gallagher KC, the human rights lawyer leading Lai’s defense team.
The government’s fraud case centered on facilities leased by Lai’s Apple Daily news operation, accusing him and Apple executive Wong of subletting space to another of Lai’s companies, Dico Consultants Limited, without permission and in breach of Apple’s contract at the government-owned industrial park.
The appeal court judges ruled that the infraction did not reach the criminal threshold for fraud, and overturned Lai and Wong’s convictions.
Lai was first arrested in August 2020, making him among the first to be charged under the national security law introduced just two months earlier. At the same time, his Apple Daily offices were raided.
He was then released on bail, but was arrested again shortly after and charged in December of that year and has remained in custody ever since.
On Feb. 9, Lai was sentenced to 20 years in prison, two months after being convicted following a 156-day trial on two charges that alleged he and Apple Daily endangered national security by encouraging foreign countries to sanction the territory and a third of conspiracy to commit sedition.
Lai’s concurrent 20-year sentence effectively added 18 years to the two years left to run of the fraud sentence he was already serving. That sentence remains in force but it remained unclear how the expunging of the fraud conviction and shorter, overlapping prison term on Thursday affects how much time he must serve.
Apple Daily, the newspaper and media empire Lai founded 30 years ago, which became a beacon for democratic rights and opposition to increasingly authoritarian rule after Britain handed Hong Kong back to China, ceased operating in 2021.
Historic February moments through the years
Former South African president Nelson Mandela speaks to reporters outside of the White House in Washington on October 21, 1999. Mandela was famously released from prison in South Africa on February 11, 1990. Photo by Joel Rennich/UPI | License Photo
