A Hong Kong appellate court has overturned fraud convictions against media mogul Jimmy Lai, a rare legal victory for the pro-democracy activist. The 78-year-old founder of the now-defunct Apple Daily will remain in prison, however, as he is serving a 20-year sentence under the city's national security law imposed by China.
The overturned convictions stemmed from a 2022 case in which Lai was found guilty of two fraud charges related to a consultancy firm he controlled, which prosecutors argued had improperly used office space rented by his media business. A lower court had sentenced him to five years and nine months in prison and fined him HK$2m ($257,000).
Higher court judges ruled that the prosecution had failed to prove beyond reasonable doubt that Lai and his co-defendant had made false representations, throwing out both convictions. The ruling could slightly reduce Lai's total time behind bars, as his national security sentence was structured to run consecutively after the fraud term.
Lai's case has drawn international criticism over press freedom in Hong Kong, though authorities insist it is unrelated to media independence. The UK foreign secretary, Yvette Cooper, has called for his release on humanitarian grounds, noting his British citizenship.
Separately, a Hong Kong court sentenced the father of wanted activist Anna Kwok to eight months in prison for attempting to handle her insurance policy, the first conviction under the security law for dealing with an absconder's assets.
