Hong Kong pro-democracy tycoon jailed over fraud

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2 年前

STORY: Pro-democracy Hong Kong media tycoon Jimmy Lai was sentenced on Saturday (December 10) to five years and nine months in prison for fraud.

Lai, one of Hong Kong's most prominent China critics, was convicted of violating a lease contract for the headquarters of a liberal newspaper he used to run.

He has been behind bars since December 2020 for unlawful assemblies, and also faces sedition and national security charges.

The 75-year-old was found guilty of two counts of fraud for concealing the operations of a private consultancy firm at the headquarters of his newspaper Apple Daily - which shut down in June 2021 after a police raid.

Prosecutors said the newspaper's lease conditions on a plot of government land, specified the premises could only be used for printing and publishing newspapers and magazines.

In handing down the sentence, the judge said Lai's prosecution "wasn't equivalent to an attack on press freedom."

Another defendant Wong Wai-keung, an executive who worked for Lai, was jailed for 21 months for fraud.

Western governments including the United States have expressed concern about Lai's plight.

They have condemned what they call a broader deterioration in protection for human rights and fundamental freedoms under the Beijing-imposed National Security Law.