An appellate court in Hong Kong reversed fraud convictions against former media tycoon Jimmy Lai. It was a rare victory for the prominent pro-democracy activist, who is a fierce critic of Beijing and has faced a litany of legal battles.
Lai, 78, an outspoken critic of China’s ruling Communist Party who founded the now-defunct Apple Daily, will stay in prison because he was sentenced to 20 years weeks ago after being convicted in another case brought under a China-imposed national security law.
He was convicted in December of conspiring to collude with foreign forces to endanger national security and conspiring to publish seditious articles, which carried a maximum penalty of life in prison. His sentence was the longest punishment brought to date since China imposed the national security law in 2020, essentially silencing Hong Kong’s dissent.
That came more than five years after he was arrested under the law, which was used in a yearslong crackdown on many of Hong Kong’s leading activists. His plight has evoked grief over the city’s loss of press freedom and sparked an international outcry, though the city’s authorities insist his case had nothing to do with media independence.
The conviction that was overturned Thursday was from an earlier fraud case in which prosecutors alleged that a consultancy firm controlled by Lai had used office space that his media business rented for publication and printing purposes.
Lai was sentenced to five years and nine months in prison in 2022 after being found guilty of two fraud charges.
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A lower court judge found that Lai and his co-defendant Wong Wai-keung had concealed that the firm was occupying space and had violated the lease agreement, saying he had used his media organization as a protective shield. He also fined Lai 2 million Hong Kong dollars ($257,000).
Judges at the Court of Appeal wrote in their judgment that while Apple Daily Printing had breached the lease terms by allowing the firm to use part of the space, it didn’t owe a duty to disclose its breach. They said even if it had owed and breached that duty, the same could not be attributed to Lai and Wong as a matter of law.
The trial judge’s “reasoning in concluding that the applicants were liable for the concealment as the prosecution contended is unsupportable,” they said.
They also ruled that the prosecution had failed to prove beyond reasonable doubt that the defendants had made false representations, throwing out both convictions and sentences.
Neither defendant appeared in court.
The ruling could reduce Lai’s total prison time. The judges handling Lai’s national security case allowed the two sentences to be served concurrently for only two years, with the other 18 years to be added after the fraud sentence.
The government said in a statement that the Department of Justice would study the judgment thoroughly and consider whether to appeal.
It said that although the Court of Appeal found the breach of contract did not meet the threshold for a fraud conviction, it didn’t change the fact that Lai had used the office space for illegitimate personal purposes.
The lengthy sentence has raised concerns that he could spend the rest of his life in prison.
Lai’s children have expressed hopes that a visit by U.S. President Donald Trump to Beijing could help secure the release of their father, a British citizen. The White House has confirmed that Trump will travel to China on March 31 through April 2 to meet Chinese leader Xi Jinping.
U.K. Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper has said Lai was sentenced for exercising his right to freedom of expression and called on the Hong Kong authorities to release him on humanitarian grounds.
Chinese and Hong Kong authorities have defended Lai’s sentencing in the national security case, saying it reflected the spirit of the rule of law. They also insisted the security law is necessary for the city’s stability.
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