Hong Kong’s Jimmy Lai has a fraud conviction overturned on appeal, a surprise legal win for the jailed pro-democracy media tycoon
HONG KONG: Pro-democracy media tycoon Jimmy Lai won an appeal on Thursday over a 2022 fraud conviction.
This surprise legal victory comes just days after a separate court jailed him on national security charges.
The 78-year-old founder of the now-defunct Apple Daily newspaper was sentenced to 20 years in prison this month on collusion charges.
The fraud case was unrelated to those national security proceedings and stemmed from a contractual dispute.
High Court Chief Judge Jeremy Poon announced the ruling, stating, “(We) allow the appeals, quash the convictions and set aside the sentences.” He added that he granted Lai’s application to be excused from appearing in court.
Lai did not appear and remains behind bars on the separate charges. In the 2022 fraud case, he had received a jail sentence of five years and nine months over what the trial judge called a “planned, organised and years-long” scheme.
Prosecutors argued that a consultancy firm Lai operated for personal use had occupied office space rented by Apple Daily for publication and printing.
They said this breached the lease terms with a government company and amounted to fraud.
Defence lawyers had argued the case should have been a civil suit instead of a criminal prosecution. They noted the square footage involved was minimal.
Former Apple Daily executive Wong Wai-keung was also charged in the same case and jailed for 21 months. The fraud conviction against him was also overturned in the appeal.
