The 75-year-old China critic was found guilty of two counts of fraud for concealing a private company’s operations and breaching a lease agreement at the former Apple Daily offices.
Jimmy Lai, a pro-democracy Hong Kong tycoon, was convicted of fraud and sentenced to five years and nine months in prison.
The 75-year-old millionaire was convicted of two counts of fraud on Saturday for concealing the operations of private company Dico Consultants Ltd at the former offices of the now-defunct Apple Daily newspaper, which was deemed a violation of its land lease.
The ardent China critic was apprehended and charged for the first time in December 2020, and he served 20 months for unlawful assembly amid major pro-democracy rallies in 2019. Nine others served time in jail or were placed on probation.
Lai was the former CEO of Next Digital, the parent business of Apple Daily, which was shut down by police in June 2021. Another Next Digital executive, Wong Wai-Keung, 61, was found guilty of fraud and sentenced to 21 months in prison.
District Court Judge Stanley Chan said in his decision that Lai “operated under the protection of a media company.” The trial of a media mogul, he noted, “was not akin to an attack on press freedom.”
The prosecution argued that the newspaper could only be used for “publishing and printing” without the operator’s prior consent owing to the terms of the land’s lease. Lai’s sentence was lowered by three months in recognition of the prosecution’s case.
Governments in the west, particularly the United States, have expressed concern over Lai’s condition and decried what they say is a worsening in the protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms under China’s National Security Law.
Beijing’s sophisticated criminal case against Jimmy Lai is a vengeance against a leading proponent of democracy and media freedom in Hong Kong,” said Maya Wang, Asia director of the New York-based advocacy organization Human Rights Watch, demanding Lai’s release.
Lai’s attorney, Derek Chan, urged the judge to take Lai’s age and contributions to Hong Kong’s media business into account.
On Tuesday, a separate, historic national security trial involving Lai is expected to resume.
It has been postponed until Beijing decides whether foreign attorneys, including Lai’s British attorney Timothy Owen, should be permitted to work on national security issues.
Under the national security statute, Lai faces a maximum probable life sentence for two charges of conspiracy to commit collaboration with foreign countries or external elements and one count of collusion with foreign forces.
In addition, he is charged with sedition about the Apple Daily publication.
