Hong Kong
CNN
—
A Hong Kong court docket on Saturday sentenced jailed media mogul Jimmy Lai to 5 years and 9 months in jail for fraud, within the newest authorized problem towards the pro-democracy tycoon.
Lai was discovered to have breached the phrases of lease for the headquarters of his now defunct Apple Each day newspaper after concealing the operation of a consultancy that supplied company secretarial companies to personal corporations Lai managed.
Together with the jail sentence, Lai was additionally fined 2 million Hong Kong {dollars} ($257,000) and disqualified as an organization director for eight years.
Wong Wai Keung, the director of administration of Apple Each day’s mother or father firm Subsequent Digital and a co-defendant, was sentenced to 21 months in jail.
In October, Lai and Wong had been each convicted of fraud by the identical court docket. Each pleaded not responsible.
Lai, who has been remanded in custody for nearly two years, can also be dealing with a trial underneath Hong Kong’s sweeping nationwide safety regulation.
Because the safety regulation was imposed by Beijing in 2020, in response to large anti-government protests, authorities have cracked down on dissent.
Activists, protesters and journalists have been jailed, civil society crippled, and a variety of unbiased information shops shuttered.
Lai, 74, is among the most high-profile critics of Beijing charged underneath the regulation and faces a most sentence of life in jail on prices of colluding with international forces. He additionally faces one cost underneath a colonial-era sedition regulation, and was sentenced to 13 months in jail in 2021 for taking part in an unauthorized protest.
His pro-democracy tabloid Apple Each day was among the many newspapers pressured to close down for the reason that implementation of the regulation, after police raided the newsroom and authorities froze its belongings.
The Hong Kong authorities has repeatedly denied criticism that the regulation has stifled freedoms, claiming as a substitute it has restored order within the metropolis after the 2019 protests.
Hong Kong, a former British colony that was handed over to Chinese language rule in 1997, continues to make use of the frequent regulation system it inherited from Britain.
Its unbiased judiciary and rule of regulation have lengthy been deemed key to town’s success as a worldwide monetary middle – although many authorized specialists have expressed misgivings for the reason that introduction of the safety regulation, together with two British judges who resigned earlier this 12 months, saying town had “departed from values of political freedom.”
The town’s authorized system sometimes permits abroad judges within the metropolis’s courts, and legal professionals from different frequent regulation jurisdictions can work on circumstances the place their experience is required.
Nonetheless, circumstances underneath the nationwide safety regulation are dealt with by a devoted department of the Hong Kong police and designated nationwide safety judges, elevating concern about Beijing’s potential affect on proceedings.
Lai has additionally been on the middle of this debate. In November, Hong Kong’s highest court docket upheld a verdict to permit a British barrister to characterize the tycoon in his nationwide safety case. The town’s Chief Government John Lee has since mentioned he’ll ask Beijing to find out whether or not international legal professionals can work on nationwide safety circumstances.
